Tennessee Volunteers–No. 63 | |
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Position | Center |
Class | Senior |
Personal information | |
Born: | Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. | March 11, 2001
Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
Weight | 310 lb (141 kg) |
Career history | |
College |
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High school | Knoxville Catholic (Knoxville, Tennessee) |
Career highlights and awards | |
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Cooper Morgan Mays (born March 11, 2001) is an American football center who plays for the Tennessee Volunteers.
Mays was born on March 11, 2001. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, but grew up on a farm in Kingston, Tennessee. [1] Mays attended Knoxville Catholic High School, [2] where he played football. After being named an all-state player by the TSWA during his junior and senior years, Webb was rated as a four-star recruit and a consensus top-ten center in his class. [3] Mays committed to play college football for the University of Tennessee [4] over Auburn, Duke, Florida, and Georgia. [5]
In his freshman year, Mays played in ten games for Tennessee and started two. [6] Mays started eight games the following year despite an injury that caused him to miss six games during the year. In his junior year, Mays started all thirteen games of the season and helped the Tennessee offensive line be named a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award and the Tennessee offense be ranked number one in the nation. [7] [8] Before the 2023 season, Mays was named on the preseason watchlist for the Rimington Trophy. [9] On August 9, Mays underwent surgery for a hernia. [10] The procedure caused him to miss the first four games of the season; nevertheless, Mays started the final nine games and again was a part of the Tennessee offensive line that was named a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award. [11] [12] [13] Additionally, Mays was named a member of the second-team All-SEC team. [14] Mays elected to use the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA for the shortened 2020 season and return to Tennessee for a fifth year. [15] [16] Before the 2024 season started, Mays was named on the watchlist for the first and second All-SEC teams, [17] the first and second All-American teams, [18] along with the Outland Trophy [19] and the Rimington Trophy. [20]
Mays' brother, Cade Mays, played football at Tennessee with Cooper before becoming an offensive lineman for the Carolina Panthers. [21] [22] [23] Mays' father, Kevin, also played football at Tennessee, playing from 1991 to 1994 and serving as captain of the team. [24] [25] Mays graduated with a degree in sports management in 2024. [26]
Michael Jerome Oher is an American former football tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons. He played college football at the University of Mississippi, where he earned unanimous All-American honors as a senior, and was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. He spent his first five seasons with the Ravens and was a member of the team that won Super Bowl XLVII. He later played one season for the Tennessee Titans and his final two for the Carolina Panthers.
The Tennessee Volunteers football program represents the University of Tennessee (UT).
The Florida–Tennessee football rivalry, also called the Third Saturday in September, is an American college football rivalry between the Florida Gators football team of the University of Florida and Tennessee Volunteers football team of the University of Tennessee, who first met on the football field in 1916. The Gators and Vols have competed in the same athletic conference since Florida joined the now-defunct Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1910, and the schools were founding members of the Southeastern Conference in 1932. Despite this long conference association, a true rivalry did not develop until the early 1990s due to the infrequency of earlier meetings; in the first seventy-six years (1916–91) of the series, the two teams met just twenty-one times. The Southeastern Conference (SEC) expanded to twelve universities and split into two divisions in 1992. Florida and Tennessee were placed in the SEC's East Division and have met on a home-and-home basis every season since. Their rivalry quickly blossomed in intensity and importance in the 1990s and early 2000s as both programs regularly fielded national championship contending teams under coaches Phil Fulmer of Tennessee and Steve Spurrier at Florida.
The 2008 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University during 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Tommy Tuberville served his tenth and final season as head coach at Auburn. He was joined by a new defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads and new offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, who attempted to implement Tuberville’s new without the proper players suited for the spread offense in a failed effort to correct the Tigers' offensive struggles in 2007. Tuberville fired Franklin six games into the season.
The 2008 Tennessee Volunteers football team represented the University of Tennessee in the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was led by head football coach Phillip Fulmer in his 16th and final season as head coach. The Vols played their home games in Neyland Stadium and competed in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The 2008 campaign followed a 10–4 2007 season, which saw the Vols win the Eastern Division of the conference and the Outback Bowl. This season marked the ten year anniversary of Tennessee's 1998 BCS National Championship. On November 3, Fulmer announced that, after winning some 150 games over his career, he would step down from coaching his alma mater at the end of the season.
The 2014 Tennessee Volunteers football team represented the University of Tennessee in the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season. This was the 118th overall season, 81st as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and its 23rd within the SEC Eastern Division. The team was coached by Butch Jones in his second season with Tennessee, and played its home games at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
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The 2018 Tennessee Volunteers football team represented the University of Tennessee in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Volunteers played their home games at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee and competed in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They were led by first-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt. They finished the season 5–7, 2–6 in SEC play to finish in last place in the Eastern Division.
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The 2023 Georgia Bulldogs football team represented the University of Georgia in the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the Southeastern Conference. The team was led by Kirby Smart in his eighth year as Georgia's head coach. The Bulldogs entered this season as the two-time defending consensus national champions.
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