Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt expresses frustration with the NCAA process that the Vols have gone through trying to get offensive lineman Cade Mays eligible for the 2020 season. After Tennessee completed its first practice for press coverage on Monday afternoon, Pruitt revealed that the transfer to Georgia had its first exemption for immediate qualification, but appealed the decision. The former five-star prospect is a likely starter and differentiator for the Tennessee attacking line if he is able to play after joining the Bulldogs in January.
“We have an update with Cade. “We have apparently applied for an exemption for initial eligibility here, and it was refused,” Pruitt said. We are in the process of appealing that (decision). For me, it’s frustrating, and it’s frustrating for Cade. Just looking at it, for his sake, a man who, for me, I think he was a really good player in Georgia and I do not know how he did there, but I know he played against him, i thought he was one of the better players in the league. I thought he played the right way.
“The circumstances surrounding him and his family are something he had no control over. If you look at a young man he’s translating, going through the process of how he qualifies, then there is a lot that goes in. He’s sitting there with this case threatening. Does that affect where he is on the depth map? Does that affect everything that goes on around him? It’s an unusual circumstance.
“You know me, I’m a transfer myself, and I think back to when I switched, there was a period of about 10 weeks that I did not know if I would be eligible or not. I thought about those 10 weeks then we got this denial, and there’s a lot of uncertainty there. And I hate it for him, I hate it for every young man and woman out there who wants to pass it on. I’m a proponent of the one-time transfer (rule).
“Just my question is why should we stand in the way of a young man or woman trying to find where the right place is for them, and at the moment that is not the rule. I hope it ultimately the rule will be.I know everyone who has been transferred from our place, I have written a letter for a recommendation to them to the NCAA requesting that they be approved immediately.I know it’s frustrating for Cade and it’s frustrating for our team. “
In his two seasons in Georgia, Mays, who finished the 247Sport translation rankings earlier this offseason, started 18 games and played every position on the offensive line, with impressive versatility. He was an SEC selection of All-Freshman Team and Freshman All-American in 2018 and started 11 games (six on right guard, two on right tackle, two on left guard and one on left tackle, against Baylor in the Sugar Bowl ) in 2019 In addition to the positional flexibility, Mays plays with an average streak and has a lot of power.
Mays, whose father, Kevin, was an All-SEC offensive lineman in Tennessee in the 1990s, died at Knoxville Catholic High School and was committed to the Vols for more than two years. The miserable Tennessee season 2017 and the end of the Butch Jones Era asked him to look elsewhere, and he picked up Georgia over Clemson. Mays was a five-star prospect ranking the No. 22 overall player, No. 3 offensive tackle prospect and No. 1 player in Tennessee in the 247Sports Composite for the 2018 class.
The 6-foot-6, 328-pound Mays, who will wear No. 68 for the Vols, has two seasons of qualification left with a redshirt year available as needed, and he will also be eligible for draft and already has been a projected first-round pick in a few mocks for the 2021 NFL Draft.
