Jeremy Pruitt makes a perfect case why Cade Mays should be eligible

Jeremy Pruitt believes Cade Mays shouldn’t have to wait to play for him.

Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt tells us why Cade Mays shouldn’t have to sit out.

Pruitt has a former five-star offensive tackle on his program in Mays, who transferred back to his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee after playing his first two years with the SEC East rival Georgia Bulldogs. While Mays won his waiver appeal with the NCAA, he still awaits the SEC’s ruling. If coaches can switch teams without penalty, why can’t players do the same thing?

https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1308798610247688193

Will the SEC do the right thing and let Cade Mays be immediately eligible?

Mays’ immediate eligibility case may be the most significant regarding it transfers should ever have to sit out going forward. As Pruitt said, this isn’t something any college athlete ever hopes to do. Mays is claiming a hardship waiver, given his father lost his pinky finger at a Georgia recruiting event. The pinky lawsuit may be bit of a stretch, but the age of players having to sit out is over.

This 2020 college football season won’t count toward any player’s eligibility if he doesn’t want it to this season because of the ongoing global pandemic. If Mays were allowed to play as early as Saturday vs. the South Carolina Gamecocks, this would go a long way in the Volunteers contending with Georgia and the Florida Gators for SEC East supremacy. He was a starter at UGA before this.

Let’s be real. If the SEC doesn’t allow Mays to play this year, it would be a terrible look for the conference. Fortunately for all involved, Greg Sankey has been a phenomenal commissioner since taking over the legendary Mike Slive a few years back. Even if Mays plays for his former team’s rival, he’s from Knoxville, his dad played there and his former coach Kirby Smart won’t really care.

Smart perhaps benefited the most from an immediate eligibility case this offseason. Former USC Trojans starting quarterback JT Daniels tore his ACL in Week 1 last year vs. the Fresno State Bulldogs and then proceeded to lost his starting job to Kedon Slovis. If the Southern California native can get immediate eligibility transferring across the country, so should Mays.

If Tennessee and Georgia didn’t play in the same SEC East and weren’t cross-divisional rivals or something, Mays would probably already be eligible to play for the Vols. Then again, the status of if Joey Gatewood can play for the Kentucky Wildcats after transferring from the Auburn Tigers remains a head-scratching conundrum. We’ll see if Mays will be allowed to play in 2020.

If Mays can play for the Vols, they may end up with one of the better offensive lines in the SEC.

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