Tennessee second-year offensive line coach Glen Elarbee has a lengthy list of characteristics when it comes to being a good center, with two qualities immediately jumping to the forefront.
“Intelligence has to be up there, because you’re making decisions so fast,” Elarbee said this past week in a news conference. “You’re the coach out on the field. You have to change things on third down to get us right, and there is so much involved with that.
“You also have to be the toughest son of a gun out on the field.”
Cooper Mays appears to be possessing those traits for the Volunteers and then some.
The 6-foot-3, 296-pound junior from Knoxville Catholic started twice as a freshman and eight times last season, when an ankle injury prevented him from going wire to wire in Tennessee’s run to the Music City Bowl. His third year in the program is also his first without older brother Cade, the former five-star Georgia signee who played the 2018-19 seasons with the Bulldogs before transferring back to Knoxville to compete alongside his younger sibling.