Former Tennessee offensive lineman Cade Mays talks Georgia national championship, Senior Bowl practice

Offensive lineman Cade Mays, who transferred to Tennessee heading into the 2020 season, left the Georgia Bulldogs program just two seasons before they won a national championship, but there are no hard feelings from the 2021 second team All-SEC honoree.

“Absolutely,” Mays said, when asked if he was pulling for his former Georgia team this season. “In the College Football Playoff, those are still some of my best friends. I talk to them all the time. It was so good to get to see the guys here (at the Senior Bowl). Those are my boys, so I was rooting for them, I was ecstatic when they won, when they pulled it out. It’s been a long time coming for them.”

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It was a mature response from the soon-to-be NFL draftee, who expressed unwavering support for the Georgia Bulldogs despite a bumpy transfer process. Mays was a former five-star recruit via the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, making him the No. 3 offensive tackle in the 2018 recruiting class. After committing to Tennessee, then flipping his commitment to Georgia, the 6-foot-6, 325-pound native of Knoxville, TN was named to the SEC All-Freshman team with the Bulldogs in 2018.

But when he announced his intent to transfer, and later decided to return home to Knoxville, the Tennessee transfer was not initially deemed immediately eligible. He hired a lawyer, who even went on to say that the Georgia program was not supportive of Mays and his immediate-eligibility waiver, perhaps hindering the process.

Mays, of course, ended up winning an appeal, playing in both 2020 and 2021 for the Volunteers, and is now headed to the NFL Draft. The first step in the draft process for the Tennessee product: the Senior Bowl.

“It’s been awesome,” Mays said at the Senior Bowl, where some of his former Georgia teammates accompanied him on the offensive line. “It brings me back to 2018, 2019, practicing and stuff. Where I’m working out, me and Devonte (Wyatt) and JD (Jordan Davis) are training together. So, just being around those guys (from Georgia), those friendships that I’ve had for some years and haven’t been around them that much — getting to be back around them has been awesome.”

Mays enters 2022 NFL Draft

After two years with the Georgia Bulldogs and two years with the Tennessee Volunteers, Mays, a senior, entered the 2022 NFL Draft.

“Being a kid from a small town in east Tennessee, it was an honor to wear the orange and white and play at Neyland Stadium in front of all the amazing fans we have here in Knoxvile,” Mays said, in part. “I am excited to pursue my dream of playing in the NFL and will be entering the 2022 NFL Draft.”