Let me be clear. I’m not willing to give any indication on whether or not Tennessee center Cooper Mays will play this week or not. In fact, I don’t know if the All-SEC player will be back this week and, if I did, I’m not telling.
Here’s why: the entire situation is fluid, I respect my relationship with Mays, who works with Off The Hook Sports as part of The Vol Report in which he appears as a weekly podcast guest and I realize that my access is more than the average reporter gets with an athlete at Tennessee or any other school. So there. If I knew, and I don’t, I’m not telling.
That being said, it would sure be great for the Vols if Mays could play against South Carolina on Saturday. While visiting with Jacob Warren during his weekly podcast this week, Warren described Mays’ presence as having a calming effect for Tennessee’s entire offense. Boy, would that come in handy after the bouts of inconsistency that the Vols have suffered this season? Imagine having a rock at center when quarterback Joe Milton wasn’t having his best run of passes. That could only help.
Also, Mays is just darn mean – in a good way. He plays through the echo of the whistle and has maximized his ability as much as any player on Tennessee’s football team. Remember, Mays came to UT as a supposedly undersized offensive lineman. He’ll leave the Vols as a bona fide NFL prospect. It’s not that Mays is an overachiever; he has talent. It’s that he was darned and determined to play for the Vols and be great, which he has done, just like his brother, Cade Mays, and father, Kevin Mays, did before him. Just ask those recruiting analysts that named Cooper a three-star prospect if they thought he could be an All-SEC offensive lineman. Well, don’t worry about that. They’ll just lie.
I faced a recent question about Mays on a talk show that had me as a guest to talk about my book. Oh, did I mention that Celebrate ’98: The Untold Stories of Tennessee 1998 National Championship Team is available here autographed copies, on Amazon, at HoundDogs and Alumni Hall. Shameless plug.
The question was about Mays and if he’s close to ready, should he play against South Carolina this week or wait things out with a bye week coming up. Well, there is no debate in my mind. If Mays is able to play, he should and, given his love for Tennessee’s football program, he will. Tennessee isn’t the kind of team, perhaps yet, that can just up and roll over South Carolina even if the Vols are a double-digit favorite.
South Carolina’s defensive backfield is bad, but the Gamecocks aren’t much better up front. With Ollie Lane at center, Tennessee could hold their own against South Carolina. With Mays at center, the Vols could dominate.
So will Mays play on Saturday? I have no idea. Is he needed against a Gamecock team that should be beatable without him? Absolutely.
If the Vols lose to South Carolina, Tennessee could be looking down the barrel of an 8-4 season with more SEC tests on the way, including Alabama and Georgia. The Vols have proven they’re not good enough to beat an average SEC team, like Florida, without Mays so there’s no reason to believe they can beat an average SEC team, like South Carolina, without him.
Mays and Tennessee have to consider his health first. However, if Mays is close to 100-percent and ready to play on Saturday, the Vols shouldn’t even think about resting him this week. Tennessee’s coaches know the importance of the South Carolina game and so does Mays.
