Former Ohio State Buckeyes transfer target Chaz Coleman's story in Tennessee takes another turn.
The Ohio State Buckeyes had two opportunities to get star edge rusher Chaz Coleman, and it is looking like the two-time swing and miss is turning out to be a positive.
Coleman, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, was recruited heavily by the Buckeyes coming out of high school. Ohio State lost the recruiting battle to the Penn State Nittany Lions, but stayed in touch.
After his first season, Coleman's head coach, James Franklin, was fired, and Coleman hit the transfer portal and again was a target of the Buckeyes.
Again, for the second time, the Buckeyes were back in the fight for Coleman. This time, they came up short, but it was all due to money. As it turns out, that is not a good reason for a young person to make any decision.
It has become very clear that Coleman hasn't been enjoying his time in Knoxville, and on a couple of different occasions, the word "homesick" has come up.
Now, as summer workouts have begun, Coleman is again MIA from his team as they begin the next phase of the offseason. Volunteers' head coach Josh Huepel says that Coleman is "dealing with some things" and continued by saying that "(Tennessee) is here to support him."
Now, it would be irresponsible to assume that it is just Coleman not wanting to be in Tennessee, as there is a very real possibility that there is something serious going on in his life.
With that said, the Buckeyes have to be feeling that they dodged a major headache with Coleman. It is very clear that twice now, Coleman chased the paycheck and not the right fit.
He chased it to Penn State, and he chased it to Tennessee. Those two decisions have yielded him absolutely nothing, and now there are two programs scratching their head as they have now had to deal with an expensive young player who has not met the expectations.
The hope for the person is that everything is okay and that he gets back on track. However, this needs to be the title case study for any prospect that wants to chase a check to a college football program far away.
Standing at 6'4" and weighing in at 250 pounds, Coleman is a big ball of clay that is oozing with potential. If someone can get hold of him and tap into his potential, they may find a true diamond in the rough.
If they can't, his career is in real danger of being an incredibly large question mark of what could have been.
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