Cooper Mays credits his family, teammates; focusing on what lies ahead
Senior center Cooper Mays knew the Tuesday of South Carolina week that he was going make is senior debut against the Gamecocks. It was an in practice collision that let him know he was healthy enough to help the team and protect himself.
“The first day I got out there in pads and did the whole thing, I felt pretty confident in myself,” Mays said. “I felt pretty comfortable. So earlier in the week, I felt pretty confident in where I was at.”
For two weeks leading up to the South Carolina game, there was plenty of speculation around Mays and his return. Why was it taking so long? What was head coach Josh Heupel meaning when he updated Mays as he did following the UTSA game?
“We’ll see next week. End of the day, he didn’t feel he was ready for this one,” Heupel said postgame. “So hopefully we’ll have him back.”
The length of the return and the uncertainty of that return created plenty of speculation. Did Mays want to play? Was he cleared and refusing to play among many questions and rumblings? All speculation that Mays said he did his best to avoid.
“I just didn’t really deal with it,” Mays said. “I just turned a blind eye to it. You can’t really focus on what people are saying outside the building. That’s preached by the coaching staff. All that matters is right here in this building. That’s where my ears were and my eyes were.”
Mays’ eyes and ears were focused on the building. His heart wanted to be on the field, but he is body couldn’t. It made for a tough eight weeks for the senior.
“It was rough,” Mays acknowledged. “That was expected though. We’re student-athletes, it’s kind of like our whole thing. Playing football, it’s basically our whole life. Not being able to do what you love and what you’ve prepared to do your whole life is going to be hard every time.”
Mays credits his teammates and his family for helping him return.
“A huge part of it was my family,” Mays said. “After I had surgery, I went home for a couple of days and hung out with my family. They kind of nursed me back to health a little bit. My family and all my teammates here were great. I love those guys.”
And Mays loves being back. Saturday night in the Vols 41-20 win, Mays played all but the last four snaps of the game and while it was obviously he had some discomfort from pre-game to his final snap, wt was worth it.
“If I’m going to start something then I am going to finish it,” Mays said. “I anticipated playing the whole game and it kind of ended up being that way.
“It felt good to be out there and be with my teammates. Getting back, getting into the swing of things and getting into a little bit of rhythm was good. Some times it hurts to play the game. That’s just the way it is. I’ve been a little bit sore.”
With a well timed open date, Mays and his teammates can heal and get even more dialed in together as they are really practicing together for the first time. It was very clear what his return to the line up meant even with just a handful of practices.
“Smart, tough, completive, ability to communicate, get all five guys on the same page within our tempo,” Heupel said of Mays. ”That is extremely important. It is important in every offense, but when you are playing with tempo, the recognition of what is going on up front, there are a lot of moving pieces before the snap, and he does a great job of that. He is tough and physical and played a lot of football. Your inside combinations, your pass protection, it is all elevated with his play.”
The question not is how much more elevation is there for an offensive line that’s helping lead the SEC in rushing and has only given up three sacks in five games this season. Mays believes there’s plenty“I think the ceiling is pretty high. I think when we are together we play pretty good football and that showed last week. I think we did a pretty good job. We have stuff we have to grow with.”
Growth that will be tested in a much more challenging way next week as Texas A&M and their talented defensive front comes to town.
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