The New Orleans native had a big-time freshman season in 2020 before an injury-plagued sophomore season.
On Tuesday, TCU Horned Frogs defensive end Khari Coleman entered the NCAA transfer portal after two seasons in Fort Worth.
#TCU defensive end Khari Coleman has entered the NCAA transfer portal. He is no longer listed on TCU’s football roster.
— Jeremy Clark (@JClarkHFB247) February 15, 2022
The 6’2, 221-pounder is the latest TCU player to leave the program since former head coach Gary Patterson was fired last fall and immediately becomes a candidate to rejoin Patterson in Austin. Patterson was hired by Texas last month as a special assistant to head coach Steve Sarkisian.
A consensus three-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class out of New Orleans, Coleman was a Kansas commit who flipped to TCU during the early signing period in 2019. He also held offers from Kansas State, SMU, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt, among others.
Like many other Horned Frogs recruits under Patterson, Coleman quickly out-performed his recruiting rankings, emerging as an impact player as a freshman, recording 33 tackles, 15 tackles for loss — seventh nationally — and three sacks during nine starts in 2020.
Coleman missed the first three games last season due to injury wasn’t able to match his previous production, appearing in nine games and starting four while racking up 19 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks.
Like fellow transfer Ochaun Mathis, Coleman is moving on in part because new defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie is installing a 3-3-5 defensive scheme that would force him to move to linebacker.
If there’s a knock on Coleman, it’s that he’s undersized for the edge position in the Texas defense at 221 pounds — Notre Dame transfer Ovie Oghoufo was listed at 237 pounds and mainly played Sam linebacker last season because he struggled to effectively defend the run. But there’s no question that Coleman has disruptive ability, so he’s a name to watch due to his explosiveness off the ball, change-of-direction ability, and motor.
He’s just likely not the top option for Texas among former TCU edge standouts, as that distinction still belongs to Mathis.