The Tennessee football program is winning right now. They’ve been victorious in their last three games and take a 7-1 record into Saturday night’s match up with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Tennessee is favored by 24 points over Mississippi State – rightly so, as the Bulldogs are currently in the basement of the SEC rankings.
But, mistakes have been made. Dropped balls and missed field goals were abound when the Vols beat Kentucky last Saturday 28-18. Vols’ center Cooper Mays knows there’s room for improvement.
“We definitely didn’t dominate or anything,” Mays told the Vol Report this week on Tennessee’s play against Kentucky. “I mean, it was definitely a SEC football game. And, you know, it was a grudge match kind of till the end. And, I thought that we persevered.”
While the defense has managed to hold opposing teams to under 20 points a game, what is the key to improving the offense? Especially in the first half of the game.
“I would say a lot of it is just the trust we have in each other,” Mays said. “It’s still a lot of stuff that we have left out there, especially these last few games. But, you know, at the end of the day, we go in there and make adjustments and we believe in each other and we just keep going. And then I think it works out in the end most of the time.”
Tennessee is proving to be a second-half team of late, mounting comebacks in the last two quarters of the game. It’s enough to give the fans some major anxiety. How can the Vols come out big next week?
“If we could figure it out, then we’d be doing better in the first half probably,” Mays admitted. “I think kind of what I was saying about how we believe in each other and kind of trusting each other. It also helps that we’ve got a stud defense that just shuts people down. And, I feel like we got good competitive nature and it shows throughout the whole entirety of the game.”
The past few games have proven you cannot count Tennessee out, no matter what the score is going into halftime. According to Mays, the offensive line is steadily improving as the season progresses.
“I’m confident in it,” said Mays. “I know what our guys are about and how we prepare and just the stuff that they can tolerate.
“I think we’re a gritty bunch of guys and even though stuff’s not perfect, nobody really complains,” Mays continued. “Everybody just keeps their head down… keeps working. And, I think that’s kind of why we’ve gotten better each week. It’s hard. It’s really hard to do.”
There’s another set of Bulldogs on the Vols’ horizon – No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs, who Tennessee will face on November 16th in Athens. But Mays isn’t thinking that far ahead.
“Game by game, week by week.” Mays said, “Yeah. Unwavering faith.”
