'When we're warming up against Georgia, he's ready to run through a wall' Vols QBs give strong praise to underappreciated teammate
Tennessee Vols backup quarterbacks Gaston Moore and Jake Merklinger offered some strong praise this week for a teammate that could be considered "underappreciated". Vols players like Dylan Sampson, Nico Iamaleava, Bru McCoy, Squirrel White, Dont'e Thornton, James Pearce, Jermod McCoy, and Boo Carter, among others, receive most of the headlines. But those are far from […]
Tennessee Vols backup quarterbacks Gaston Moore and Jake Merklinger offered some strong praise this week for a teammate that could be considered "underappreciated".
Vols players like Dylan Sampson, Nico Iamaleava, Bru McCoy, Squirrel White, Dont'e Thornton, James Pearce, Jermod McCoy, and Boo Carter, among others, receive most of the headlines. But those are far from the only players responsible for Tennessee's strong start to the season.
Senior offensive lineman Cooper Mays deserves a share of those headlines. Mays, who is from Knoxville, is obviously a well-known player for the Volunteers. But I'm not sure he gets the respect/appreciation he deserves. Not only is Mays, who is in his fifth season as the starting center at UT (he started two games at center as a true freshman in 2020), incredibly important to Tennessee's on-field success, but he's an extremely important leader for the Vols, too.
Mays leads by example. He leads by being a tough player who constantly puts in hard work while doing "everything right".
And his leadership/toughness is something that's not overlooked by his teammates.
Moore and Merklinger highlighted Mays during this week's episode of The Players Lounge Tennessee.
"Cooper, dude, he's always like — he never complains about anything, if he's hurting or anything, he just gets out there and works his butt off," said Moore.
"Off the field, he's probably one of the nicest guys on the team," continued Moore. "But when we're warming up against Georgia, he's ready to run through a wall. It's pretty cool."
"He's a bad dude," added Merklinger. "That's someone I really look up to on the team as a leader. He's tough as nails. He does everything right. He's really good."
Mays is one of the big reasons why Tennessee's culture flipped so quickly when Josh Heupel took over as the program's head coach in early 2021. Mays didn't sign with the Vols to play for Heupel. He signed with Tennessee to play for Jeremy Pruitt. But once Heupel took over for Pruitt, Mays bought in and immediately became a key team leader for the Vols despite being a young player at the time.
Heupel is the reason that Tennessee is trending up. But I'm not sure the turnaround happens the way it has without Cooper Mays on the roster.
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