Cooper Mays discusses leadership role on offensive line

Tennessee boasted one of the best offensive line units in the country last season, and center Cooper Mays was the anchor of the unit. The Vols lose first-round draft pick Darnell Wright and the leader Jerome Carvin to the NFL, making Mays the unquestioned leader of Tennessee’s offensive line. During spring practice Mays was asked about his new role, and if was a natural transition.

“I think so, I feel like I was a decent leader last year and kind of made my mark a little bit,” Mays said. “But I think Jerome was kind of the head of that room and I was kind of his little supporting piece beside him. So just more working on this year just kind of stepping up into that role and taking it day for day and trying to get better at it.”

Mays started every single game last year for the Volunteers, logging a career-high 825 snaps after playing 609 snaps in his entire career prior to his junior season. He was the middle man in Tennessee’s offense that ended the 2022 season ranked the top offense in the nation in scoring and yards per game.

Mays will now look to lead the Vols up front on and off the field, and shared a valuable leadership lesson that was taught to him by Carvin.

“Just be the same guy every day. I’ve preached it ever since I’ve been kind of the leader or whatever you want to call it. But being the same guy every day is huge in anything you do in my opinion, so if you know what you’re going to get out of somebody you have a lot of faith in them. If you don’t, you’re not gonna trust much, you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Mays said.

Carvin signed with the Kansas City Chiefs following the 2023 NFL Draft, but the leadership lessons that he passed down to Mays will still remain in Knoxville.

“But Jerome man, special guy, comes to work with the right attitude and a smile on his face every day and just trying to mimic that a little bit. It’s special when you’ve got a guy that has a good energy about him every day, it’s infectious,” Mays said.

Hopefully, Mays can uphold the high standard that’s now been set at the offensive line spot as Tennessee, as the Vols look to have another explosive season on the offensive side of the ball, which all starts up front.