Recent reports seem to indicate that the Georgia Football team is playing Cade Mays at Right guard in place of the injured Ben Cleveland and with the Tennessee game coming up, that makes for a juicy story line.
With Ben Cleveland injured for the coming weeks, Georgia Football needs to figure out who can step in and replace him. Andrew Thomas looks back to being healthy this week and has been training since Monday at left tackle. That means that the Dawgs just have one hole to fill on their offensive line. Once again, it looks like Cade Mays is going to be the guy taking that spot.
Mays stepped in and played left tackle the past few weeks when Thomas was injured. He was a dominant run blocker during those games but he struggled in pass protection, often allowing teams to get pressure on Jake Fromm. That’s not entirely surprising. Mays is still just a true freshman who needs to work on his technique to be a true left tackle. Where he excels is in the run game and that’s why playing at right guard should fit his skill set rather well.
Cade Mays might be one of the meanest, nastiest S.O.B’s that plays football right now. His technique and balance need work, but his toughness and desire to bury opposing defenders are already right up there. He loves destroying people in the run game and that is exactly what he’ll be asked to do at right guard. Playing next to Isaiah Wilson, the Dawgs shouldn’t miss much with Mays stepping in for Cleveland.
Then there is the Tennessee factor. Mays is a Vol legacy. His father was a legend in Knoxville and Cade was committed to play there until the Butch Jones meltdown last season. He decommitted and after a short recruitment process, ended up coming to Georgia.
Needless to say, Vol fans lost their minds and since then things have gotten pretty ugly. Whether it’s taking to Twitter and praying for him to lose his leg or going on talk radio and slamming his parents, Tennessee fans have spent the last 10 months showing their own nasty side to the world. This isn’t exactly surprising considering they are the same fan base who still laugh at Nick Chubb’s knee injury.
It’s hard to imagine there will be a player more motivated for this weeks game than Mays. He spent his whole life thinking that he would play for the Vols, only to see the program turn in to a dumpster fire and go elsewhere. Since then, he’s been belittled, mocked and verbally abused by the fanbase. I’m going to guess that Mays is rather looking forward to hitting some Vol defenders this week.
He’s had some issues with personal fouls already this season and so Kirby Smart will have to make sure he plays with discipline this week. But if he does, I can think of no better right guard for this particular game. There will not be a more motivated player in the Georgia locker room than Mays come Saturday and I for one cannot wait to see him unleashed upon a Tennessee team that might not like the bear that they have poked for nearly a year.