Watch: Vols Center Cooper Mays Talks Fall Camp, More

Following day four of preseason camp, Vols starting center Cooper Mays spoke with the media. You can watch the full vide above. 

Mays received plenty of praise from his offensive line coach, Glen Elarbee, who also spoke with the media on Thursday. 

“I mean, he’s a tough son of a gun," Elarbee said of Mays. "Both him and his brother. Guy loves the game of football. Loves the physicality part of it. Will absolutely throw his body around and is just old-school in the fact that you try to tape it up and keep on going. He’s done a great job this camp. I think his offseason was even better than the previous one. I think Coach (Kurt) Schmidt did a great job with him. He’s stronger. He’s able to kind of lift and set some things down that he wasn’t doing last year. I don’t know, man, he’s freakin’ smart, way smarter than this coach.”

According to Elarbee, intelligence is a key aspect at the position, and Mays certainly helps the Vols offensive line click. 

“Oh, gosh. Man, intelligence has to be up there, just because you’re making decisions so fast, and it’s really you’re the coach out on the field because you have to change it on third downs and get us right and there’s so much involved with that," Elarbee said of what he looks for in a center. "Obviously, you have to just be unbelievably tough. I think that’s kind of got to be the cornerstone of the offensive line. That guy better be the toughest son of a gun on the field. Then just the athletic ability, because we do pull that guy. Then obviously as much girth, width, anchor ability as you possibly get.”

Mays was voted to the preseason All-SEC third team in July. Mays has played in 18 games with ten starts during his time at Tennessee. He will look to build on that this fall.