ATHENS – Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt has responded that at least part of the motive for the transfer of football starter Cade Mays to Tennessee includes a lawsuit filed by the Mays family against UGA.
“To him who chooses to let me transfer, and that we apply for it, it’s just common sense,” Pruitt said at his news conference on Friday afternoon.
“If there’s a case going on with your employer, it’s probably not the best environment in the world.”
Mays had recently refused his first request for immediate qualification. Another request for immediate qualification has been submitted. It must be approved by both the NCAA and SEC (because it is a transfer for interconference).
WATCH: The transfer drama of Cade Mays, Knox’s lawyer hits UGA culture
Quarterback Joey Gatewood (Auburn to Kentucky) and defensive back Otis Reese (Georgia to Ole Miss) are two other players in the league who have yet to learn their status.
Mays’ case differs in the sense that there is no chance of dealing with more playing time, as much as what Pruitt suggests could be ‘pressure’ applied to Mays because of the lawsuit.
“There’s obviously a circumstance, the lawsuit between his parents and the University of Georgia, and it was something that started while he was there,” Pruitt said.
I’m sure there was probably pressure from both sides of their coaching staff towards him as a player, just something not quite happening. “
Cade May’s Last Georgia Interview, Dec. 28 2019
Make heads
Mays’ case has attracted much more attention because of his status as a former Freshman All-American and the interesting nature of his father’s lawsuit against Georgia.
Kevin Mays, a former Tennessee football captain, filed a $ 3 million lawsuit on December 5, 2019, charged with lost pay, medical bills and pain and suffering on account of losing part of his right pinky finger in a collapse of a folding chair.
The accident happened during Mays ’15 Dec. 2017 visit to Georgia – five days before Mays started signing with the Bulldogs.
Mays said in a videotape interview of August 20, 2019 that his family supported his decision to sign with Georgia.
“I don’t think it was very difficult for my family, they supported me from Day One,” Mays said. ‘They told me if you want to go to California, we’ll be at every game. We’ll make it work no matter what.
“I have made a decision that was best for me, and I am grateful that they support it as they did.”
Knoxville lawyer Gregory Isaacs told the Knoxville News-Sentinel last week that Mays, who started 11 games last week as a sophomore, is dealing with a “toxic environment” in Georgia.
““Because of several factors, it was a toxic environment that did not support the well-being of Cade Mays as a student-athlete,” Isaacs said.
Pruitt’s plea
Pruitt was once a transfer even from the then Division I-AA Central Tennessee to Alabama after his second season (1994).
1994 Media Guide of Central Tennessee State
“I’m a transfer myself, and I think back to when I transferred, there was a period of about 10 weeks that I did not have know if I would be eligible, ‘said Pruitt, who earned a role on Tide’s special teams unit in Tuscaloosa and was captain of the scout team’s defense, which eventually led to his first coaching role. as a graduate assistant.
‘I thought of those 10 weeks when we got this (Mays) denial. There’s a lot of uncertainty, I hate it for him and every young man and woman out there who wants to transfer.
WATCH: Jeremy Pruitt discusses Kirby Smart’s wife, Aaron Murray
“I am a proponent of the one-time transfer, my question is why should we stand in the way of a young man or woman trying to figure out where the right place is for them?”
Mays’ case has another family element in that his younger brother, Cooper, is a member of the Tennessee football team.
Cooper Mays was also recruited by Georgia, but the Bulldogs had an upturned recruiting class and had no other scholarships available for an offensive lineman in the nation’s 1st-ranked signing class.
It’s easy to understand why the family wants Cade Mays to play with his brother Cooper.
Second time flip
Indeed, Cade Mays was once the cornerstone of the recruiting class of Butch Jones 2017. It was a class that emerged at the beginning of that season as no. 1 in the SEC ranks.
But as the losses mounted and built up the pressure on Jones, Mays broke the promise he had made to his birthplace school and shocked Vols’ fans by choosing rival Georgia.
“The coaching staff treats me like family and that’s where I want to call home for the next four years,” Mays said at his signing ceremony, receiving a hug from his father after he made the announcement on national television.
Aside from the lawsuit, Cade Mays ‘incentive to stay in Georgia could have lapsed when his self-proclaimed best friend, Isaiah Wilson, declared for the NFL draft and became the Tennessee Titans’ first-round pick.
Eventually, some wondered if the departure of former Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman could have influenced the Mays’ decision to leave. Pittman left UGA on Dec. 8, a day after the SEC Championship Game.
Former offensive line coach Matt Luke was hired to replace Pittman on Dec. 10, and one month later, on Jan. 9, Mays announced his intention to leave Georgia.
Kirby’s take
Georgia coach Kirby Smart has not tackled the drama of not playing in Knoxville, where the rebuilt Vols are desperate to get a player of Mays’ talent on the line and extend the winter streak of six games that Tennessee will transfer from last season.
Smart, who played all four of his years at Georgia, rose from unheralded freshman recruit to All-SEC safety, has said in the past that he is unsure if he is a fan of the NCAA transfer portal.
“I do not know it is good for college football,” Smart said “It can be good on an individual basis. But when your children sometimes give an easy way out, they sometimes take the path of least resistance.
‘People can say’ well, coach, you’re free to go where you want. ‘We also have a contract and they are free to fire us if they want.
“For a student-athlete, to say they have to go everywhere, I really believe if the child graduates now, he would be able to go anywhere he wants,” he said.
Georgia looks to rely on Wake Forest graduate transfer QB Jamie Newman and Florida State graduate transfer tight end Tre ‘McKitty this season.
The Bulldogs also have USC transfer QB JT Daniels, who received an exemption for granted direct eligibility.
Daniels suffered a knee injury in the second quarter of the first game and essentially missed the entire final season.
The disturbance of Georgia
Mays started 11 of the 14 games he played in Georgia last season, including a 26-14 Sugar Bowl win against Baylor to end his career.
Georgia had drafted three offensive linemen from last season’s team: offensive tackles for first-round tackles Andrew Thomas and Isaiah Wilson, and goalkeeper fourth-round tackles Solomon Kindley.
RELATED: Cade Mays counted heavily on Georgia’s offensive line
All three were underclassmen, putting the team in a rebuilding mode and overshadowing Mays’ decision to leave his teammates from Georgia and the program that a scholarship invested in him.
The Bulldogs play host to Tennessee on Oct. 10 in the third game of both teams of the season.
Georgia has a 24-23-2 lead in the series, despite a 1989-99 Vols Ninth-game victory. The region ran through Smart’s playing career with the Bulldogs and featured current Tennessee AD, then-coach Phillip Fulmer crawling the sideline.
Pruitt, once Smart’s understudy about the Alabama defense coaching staff, advised in a roundabout way that he would treat Mays’ transfer differently if he was on the Georgia side of the ball.
“I know that anyone who has been transferred from our place, I have written a letter for a recommendation for them to the NCAA requesting that they be approved for immediate eligibility, ‘Pruitt said. “I know it’s frustrating for Cade, and it’s frustrating for our team.”
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