Tennessee has slowly rebuilt the defense one player at a time. Josh Heupel knew the defense was below par in 2025, so he brought in Jim Knowles to help turn things around. In the month that Knowles has been at Tennessee, he's brought in 5-star Transfer Portal edge rusher Chaz Coleman, plus surefire starters in Amare Campbell, Xavier Gilliam, and TJ Metclaf.
How Josh Heupel can recover from the crushing blow of losing a former top TE to the transfer portal
By the looks of it, Heupel and Knowles aren't done yet.