Cooper Mays lists Tennessee offensive linemen growing behind him

As the Volunteers try to build on an 11-win season, they know they’ll need to be able to rely on the Tennessee offensive line. New quarterback Joe Milton is taking over for the departed Hendon Hooker and while he’s absolutely a veteran, it’ll still be a transition.

Keeping Milton on his feet will be key. Tennessee returns a good deal of experience up front, so rounding out the rest of the depth chart on the offensive line will be important.

“Yeah I think there’s a couple guys behind me, (Parker Ball), Addison (Nichols), Vysen (Lang) is working a lot,” veteran center Cade Mays said. “I think Vysen and Addison, PB obviously knows the offense really well and kind of knows his role. Vysen and Addison have taken a step forward I think behind me and I think they’re both big guys, strong guys that can hold up in the middle.”

Mays gave a pretty thorough outline of the battle going on right now between the young Tennessee offensive linemen as some of the younger players compete for their spots during fall camp.

There are quite a few snaps up for grabs behind the already established starters, so it should be a hungry group throughout the preseason.

“Young guys I would say you look at the guard spot, we’ve got a lot of young guys in the guard spot,” Mays said. “Mo Clipper, Masai Reddick. Addison Nichols plays all the interior spots. So just getting them more experience in our offense and just in the college game, it’s a hard thing to adjust to, especially in the O-line. I think they’ve taken steps forward changing their bodies around and getting stronger and then more mental reps, that’ll help them too.”

Mays has been through that transition himself, having started 23 games over the past few seasons. He’s going into his third straight year as the team’s starting center.

For Cooper Mays, improvement for the Tennessee offensive linemen will come with reps.

There isn’t a whole lot you can do to simulate live game action until you’re in it. There are just too many worries about what can happen if you’re overly physical in camp.

“I think the more you do anything obviously the more efficient you’ll be at it and the better you’ll be at it, so I think me being able to stay healthy and having a lot more time to get comfortable and see defenses and understand the game better, I think that makes you faster all around,” Mays said.

As far as the young Tennessee offensive linemen go, Mays had one parting piece of advice.

“As long as they can get the smarts down with it and the fine details, it’ll be good,” he said.