Another Tennessee defensive player is headed to the NCAA transfer portal following the loss at Ohio State in the College Football Playoff that ended the season for the Vols. Defensive lineman Jayson Jenkins, who was part of the rotation as a redshirt sophomore this season, is headed to the portal, his agency (AP Sports Agency) told 247Sports national college football reporter Matt Zenitz on Monday. Tennessee had eight scholarship players enter the portal before Saturday night’s 42-17 loss at Ohio State, and defensive back Christian Harrison and Jenkins are slated to be the first two portal entries now that the offseason has arrived for the Vols.
The transfer portal opened on December 9 and will close on December 28, a deadline that will apply for Tennessee players, who would have had five days after the final game had the Vols won their first-ever CFP game.
Jenkins, who will have two seasons of eligibility remaining, considered entering the portal back in the spring before choosing to return to Tennessee, and he had nine tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks, plus one forced fumble and one safety, in 13 appearances this season.
The 6-foot-6, 281-pounder stepped into the rotation in 2024 after redshirting during his first season in the program and appearing in six games last season. Jenkins also saw his role increase throughout the season, playing at least 16 snaps in each of the final six games and at least 25 snaps four times in that span. He played 28 snaps in the loss in Columbus, but did not have any tackles against the Buckeyes.
Jenkins had a mini-breakout game in the win at Oklahoma back in September, his tackle for loss on a Sooner running back in the end zone for a safety increasing Tennessee’s lead in the first half, and he notched a sack in the second half as the Vols were dominant defensively in the 25-15 win in Norman.
He also came up with a timely play in the win against Mississippi State in November, his strip-sack generating a turnover that stopped a Bulldog drive early in the third quarter threatening to cut into a 20-7 halftime lead for the Vols, who were without quarterback Nico Iamaleava for the second half due to injury.
Jenkins also had a half-sack at Vanderbilt and a half-tackle for loss at Arkansas while part of the rotation at defensive end behind Dominic Bailey and Tyre West.
The Vols hailed Jenkins as a success story borne out of hard work and perseverance with head coach Josh Heupel, defensive line coach Rodney Garner and teammates raving about his work ethic, but in this day and age of the transfer portal it’s increasingly more difficult to retain quality depth.
“That’s just a guy that, you come in as a young player, you grow off the field,” Heupel said in September coming out of the Oklahoma win. “He’s continued to just change his body, change his ability to move, bend, the fundamentals of the game. He’s done an unbelievable job just continuing to invest every single day, and when you invest, it may not always be on your time, but you’re going to cash it in at some point.”
Jenkins was a late addition to Tennessee’s 2022 recruiting class as the Vols increased their interest in him following a strong senior season at Notre Dame High School in New Jersey, where he had 32 tackles and 5.5 sacks after filling out his long, athletic frame and growing in confidence.
After December official visits to Pittsburgh and Boston College, Jenkins took his recruitment past the Early Signing Period. Tennessee didn’t offer until early January after Missouri, Virginia, Syracuse and others had offered, and he took official visits to West Virginia and Florida prior to his trip to Knoxville. He committed to the Vols coming out of the visit and signed a couple of days later on National Signing Day.
Jenkins appeared in one game as a freshman and played 55 defensive snaps in six games in 2023 before earning a rotation spot this season, but now he is set to be the latest Tennessee player heading out the exit door.
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