Tennessee football: Is Jared Verse connected to Tyler Baron withdrawing from transfer portal?

When Tyler Baron initially entered the transfer portal, it seemed to make sense. The combination of the depth Tennessee football had at defensive end and what was happening in his personal life all seemed to contribute to it.

Byron Young is the star edge rusher now, and Roman Harrison saw more action than Baron later in the year. Meanwhile, Baron’s father, Patrick Abernathy, had left his role as Director of Player Development at UT, which he held for eight years dating back to Butch Jones’ first season.

Matt Ray of SI.com reported Abernathy’s resignation as playing a role in Baron entering the portal. However, a day later, Matt Zenitz of On3, who initially reported Baron’s entry into the portal, reported on Twitter that he withdrew his name and has since rejoined Tennessee football.

So what’s the explanation? If Baron’s father is still no longer in his role, the depth at edge rusher is still the same, and he clearly didn’t spend enough time in the portal to see if he’d find a suitor he’d like, none of the explanations for him in the portal seem to make sense. There are only two possibilities. One is that he got a huge NIL offer to stay.

The other, though, is Jared Verse. A highly transfer edge rusher from the Albany Great Danes, Verse was down to UT and the Florida State Seminoles. On Friday evening, roughly three hours after the news broke that Baron was returning, Verse announced his commitment to FSU.

Now, here’s a chicken or egg moment. Although it seems like Baron withdrew from the portal before Verse publicly made his decision, it’s possible Baron’s decision was always based on what Verse was going to do.

Remember, Tennessee football’s coaching staff was targeting Verse heavily. If he had committed, then Baron would be competing with him and Harrison for more playing time while Young soaked up all the action on the other side.

That could have been what pushed him to the portal, and Verse choosing to go to FSU may have convinced him to rejoin Rocky Top. However, given the way the news broke, the opposite could also be true. Maybe Verse chose FSU because Baron was returning to UT.

If that’s the case, though, Baron’s decision to return doesn’t really make much sense outside of an NIL deal we know nothing about. That’s still possible, and given the new landscape of the sport, more things like that are going to start happening.

Either way, Tennessee football is even more fine than we wrote about them being Thursday, when Baron was one of three transfers entering the portal. Of them, Baron was clearly the most important, and now he’s back, so Vol fans can relish in how loaded their team will be at defensive end once again entering next season.