Jeremy Pruitt is here for Cade Mays, even when the NCAA is decidedly not.
Cade Mays was denied immediate eligibility on Monday and Jeremy Pruitt went to bat for him.
Mays is a Knoxville, Tennessee native and a former five-star recruit. Despite growing up a Tennessee football fan, he decided to play the first two years of his college career with the division rival Georgia Bulldogs. Mays started in 18 games during his two years in Athens, but opted to transfer back home following a lawsuit involving his father Kevin Mays’ lost finger at a UGA event.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty there, and I hate it for him and hate it for every young man and woman who wants to transfer,” said Pruitt, who pointed out that he was a transfer in college. “I’m for the one-time transfer [rule].”
“My question is: Why should we stand in the way of a young man or woman trying to figure out where the right place is for them? Right now, that’s not the rule, and I hope eventually it will be the rule.”
“I know everybody that has transferred from our place that I have written a letter of recommendation for them to the NCAA and requested that they be approved for immediate eligibility,” said Pruitt. “I know it’s frustrating for Cade, and it’s frustrating for our team.”
Why would the NCAA deny Cade Mays immediate eligibility at Tennessee?
While the NCAA’s transfer rules are growing increasingly outdated, they are in place for a reason. College coaches don’t want a player who doesn’t win a starting job to leave the program and play for a rival right away and give another program their proverbial trade secrets. It is why some college coaches block a player from transferring to any number of schools, especially a rival.
Though Mays could plead for a hardship waiver because he’s from Knoxville and his father lost a part of his pinky at a recruiting event back in 2017, the NCAA didn’t buy his case. The two biggest reasons Mays isn’t being granted immediate is he didn’t graduate from the University of Georgia before transferring and that he’s transferred to an SEC East division rival in Tennessee.
What the NCAA has decided to do this offseason cycle is grant immediate eligibility for players who didn’t play very much the previous season, especially if they are a quarterback. The most notable example of this is former USC Trojans quarterback JT Daniels transferring to none other than Georgia. He did tear his ACL in the Trojans’ Week 1 opener last year to Fresno State.
While it stinks that Mays can’t play in 2020, his transfer to Tennessee is why the rules are in place.
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