COLUMBIA, SC – Tennessee opened their 2020 season in South Carolina on Saturday night without offensive lineman Cade Mays, with the Georgia transfer yet to receive a word from the SEC on the verdict of his eligibility for this season The Vols were awaiting a conference decision after Mays won his appeal with the NCAA last week, but did not receive it before leaving Knoxville on Friday afternoon As an ineligible player, Tennessee couldn’t take Mays to Colombia
The Vols will be disappointed that the months-long saga with Mays, transferred to Tennessee in January, was not resolved before their first game
The NCAA tended to approve a general rule of immediate eligibility for first transfers, but in May pushed the vote on the proposal to 2021 amid the Covid-19 outbreak. Tennessee then filed a first transfer waiver, but NCAA refused and Knoxville attorney Greg Isaacs took on Mays’ representation for the appeal Flights got a response in just over a week with NCAA granting eligibility, but SEC must grant waivers for transfers that move within the conference
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey blunted optimism from Tennessee and head coach Jeremy Pruitt on Wednesday about being allowed to play Mays by stressing the conference rule requiring no-transfers graduates who move within the conference spend a full academic year before playing Previously, these transfers had to wait two seasons, but the SEC in 2018 voted certain changes in its transfer policy into effect The main change allowed for transfers of graduates within the conference for immediate eligibility
But transfers of non-graduates were only eligible immediately without waivers in the case of the program they were leaving to face a post-season ban for violating NCAA rules
« People send waivers, but one of the questions to ask is not what the commissioner is going to do, which is why our members did not vote to change this rule », a Sankey said in a radio interview with Birmingham JOX 945 « So we invite people to campus knowing that there is a clear rule, and now everybody is pointing their finger and saying, ‘Well you have to let people out of this rule’ And one one question that is real is why our members haven’t acted to change, and the answer is we have to work together, we have to be respectful
« Could it change, if it were to change, could we handle it differently, these are questions that still need to be answered The real straight answer goes back decades, and time and again since, the 14 member universities of the SEC said we believe this rule is appropriate within our own conference »
Sankey and the SEC made exceptions to such transfer rules, in 2016, removing Maurice Smith’s graduate transfer to Georgia after the defensive back left Alabama to follow Kirby Smart to the Bulldogs
However, Sankey’s comments this week suggest such an exception won’t be made for Mays, Kentucky quarterback Joey Gatewood (transferred from Auburn) or Ole defensive back Miss Otis Reese (a other transfer from Georgia)
Pruitt after Tennessee practice on Wednesday asked how the SEC could stop Mays from playing after the NCAA looked into his situation and found him eligible to play
« I have said time and time again that the tremendous job Greg has done to get us through this pandemic, » Pruitt said « I guess my question is this: I just know Cade, I know that he met a lot of professionals, and that was submitted to the NCAA and they felt he needed to play this year No one from the SEC contacted us to ask to meet with Cade, so based on the NCAA decision, I’m not sure how they would stop him from playing, unless we just wanted to say it’s a rule we voted on
« When you sit down at someone’s house to recruit them, you’re involved with 120 kids every day The circumstances that have unfolded, not just in the last six or seven months, but my entire coaching career , our first priority has to be our student-athletes and for me to keep them working towards a degree and being the best football players they can be.In my opinion, we really have to sit down and watch and see what is really the right thing to do here «
Wanya Morris and Jahmir Johnson were framed in left tackle with All-SEC selection Trey Smith in left guard, Sixth-year Senior Brandon Kennedy in center, Jerome Carvin junior in right guard and Darnell Wright in sophomore at right tackle Mays would probably have found the right tackle, but he started in four different positions during his career in Georgia and can play on the offensive line
Based on the warm-ups before Saturday night’s game, Johnson will start again on Morris, who missed most of the preseason while in two separate 14-day contact tracing quarantines, the rest of the alignment being listed on the depth graph
Morris is still expected to play, and the Vols could rotate further with K’Rojhn Calbert on the right tackle and rookie Javontez Spraggins on the right guard
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World News – United States – Cade Mays not cleared by SEC ahead of Tennessee season opener
