Zach Groves

Physical Profile

6-4, 250 with legitimately long levers and a frame that has already proven it takes weight well — he was listed at 6-4, 220 at his May 2025 commitment and carried roughly 30 pounds of added mass into his senior year without visible loss of change-of-direction. That growth curve matters more than the raw number: it projects a comfortable 265-275 playing weight in an SEC program without needing to move him inside off the edge. Athletically he is a three-sport athlete (football, basketball, track) who ran 11.42 in the 100 meters as a junior — a time that is unremarkable in a track vacuum but is a genuine outlier for a 6-4 defensive lineman, and it corroborates what shows on tape as sudden acceleration from a dead stop. Basketball background reads in his ankle flexion and his ability to sink and redirect in space. The frame fits a traditional 4-3 wide-5 end today and a two-point hybrid OLB in an odd front just as naturally, which is the flexibility Tennessee bought.

Play Style

A power-first, downhill edge defender who plays with genuine urgency and hunts negative plays rather than waiting to react. His best reps are wide-5 and wide-9 alignments where he can attack a half-man surface with a head start — he eats ground in two steps, converts speed to power, and either walks the tackle back into the pocket or works to flatten. Against the run he is more disruptive than technically sound: he shoots gaps and wins with quickness and length instead of stacking-and-shedding, which produced the huge TFL numbers at 2A but is the exact habit that gets an SEC edge reach-blocked or trapped. He was also used as a stress-point athlete on offense with ball-carrying snaps, and that comfort in space shows up on chase-down pursuit and in his ability to redirect on screens and boots. Tendency-wise he is heavily right-handed in his approach — the initial move is almost always straight into the tackle's frame, and he does not yet set up blockers across a series.

Strengths

• Speed-to-power conversion off the edge — he closes ground fast enough to force a tackle to open the gate, then dumps his hips and runs through the outside shoulder. 247's Gabe Brooks specifically flags 'speed-to-power ability that can win,' and it is the most college-transferable trait on his tape.
• Sudden, variable-gear acceleration. He is not a one-speed rusher; he throttles down and re-accelerates mid-rush, which is a hard trait to coach and the reason his ceiling grades above his current production. Explosive from a static stance as well as on the move.
• Disruption volume at a level almost nobody in the country matched: 71.5 career TFL is a four-year negative-play rate that reflects real gap-wrecking, not just cleanup. He also generated 20 QB hurries as a senior — pressure production that ran well ahead of his sack total.
• Bend and corner flexibility for the size. He can flatten around the arc rather than running the hoop wide, which keeps his power rush honest and gives him a second win path once his hands develop.
• Position and situational versatility — he took two-way snaps including athletic ball-carrying reps, was a two-time TSWA All-State selection and a Mr. Football winner, and has strong family football lineage. High football-character, high-usage profile.

Areas to Improve

• Pass-rush move set is thin. He wins with power and burst and very little else — no consistent counter off the long-arm, no cross-chop or spin to access when the tackle absorbs the initial bull. This is the single gating item between a rotational freshman and a starter, and it is entirely coachable.
• Pad level and snap anticipation. He plays upright at the line more than a 6-4 rusher can afford against SEC tackles, which surrenders his length advantage and lets bigger linemen get into his chest first. His get-off is explosive when he times it and average when he doesn't — the reaction is currently to the ball's movement rather than ahead of it.
• Finishing at the quarterback. 4.5 sacks on 20 hurries as a senior is a conversion problem, part of which is 2A opponents chipping and sliding to him, but part of which is closing angle and hand technique through contact at the top of the rush.
• Level of competition. Tennessee Class 2A is a real jump down from the SEC in size and technique at tackle; he was frequently the best athlete on the field by a wide margin and rarely had to problem-solve against an equal. Expect an adjustment period where athleticism alone stops winning.

College Projection

Realistic first-year outcome is a developmental redshirt or a limited situational role, with special teams as the fastest path onto the field — his length and burst make him an immediate coverage and field-goal-block piece. The physical baseline (6-4, 250 with proven mass-gain history) is SEC-ready sooner than his hands are; expect a strength-and-technique year focused on pad level, hand placement and building a second and third rush move before he sees meaningful third-down snaps. Year two is the rotational pass-rush specialist window and year three the realistic starting window, with the caveat that his trajectory has been steeply positive at every checkpoint and he is the type of tools-plus-motor player who can compress that timeline if the move set clicks early. Scheme-wise he fits Tennessee's front as a base four-man end who can stand up in obvious passing situations.

NFL Outlook

Legitimate draftable prospect with real variance in either direction. 247Sports' evaluation currently projects him as a Day 3 (rounds 4-7) selection, which is a fair floor read on a 4-star edge whose production came at 2A and whose rush plan is one-dimensional. The upside case is meaningfully higher: 6-4 with room for 20-plus more pounds, sub-11.5 100-meter speed at that size, and demonstrated bend is the exact athletic package that moves into Day 2 conversation if a college staff installs a counter game and cleans up his pad level. Track the strength-and-conditioning numbers and his snap-count trajectory in years two and three — those will decide whether he lands as a rotational NFL edge or a starter-level one.

Best Fit

A four-down front that lets him attack up the field from a wide alignment rather than two-gap — his value is created before contact, and any scheme asking him to read-and-react at the point of attack wastes the burst. Ideal is an attacking 4-3 or a multiple front that can walk him up to a two-point stance on passing downs, paired with a defensive line coach with a track record of hand-technique development, since his athletic base is already there and the move set is the deficit. He also needs a program willing to be patient through a strength year rather than burning him early on emergency snaps. Tennessee is a reasonable fit on all three counts: in-state, upfield-attacking, and with the roster depth to develop him on the timeline the tape actually calls for.