Cooper Mays earns Opening Finals invite, continues impressive camp showings
MURFREESBORO — Two camps, two top performances and one major invitation on Wednesday.
Cooper Mays made it his goal this spring to prove his current recruiting rating didn’t match his actual skill-set, and after another impressive showing last Sunday the Opening Regional, the Knoxville Catholic 3-star offensive lineman looks primed for ratings bump.
Mays, who was the OL MVP at the Charlotte Rivals camp, earned a spot among the Top 5 offensive lineman in Nashville, winning the majority of his 1-on-1 reps. That was followed up by an invite to the Opening Finals at the end of June in Texas, which was officially announced Friday.
"It means a lot to me because it validates all the hard work I've put in is getting recognition," Mays said of the invite to the Opening.
The validation has been very fruitful for Mays, as he works to prove he belongs among the nation's best.
“When my brother (former 5-star OT Cade Mays) came to these camps, he really he had stuff to lose,” Mays said, “But the big thing for me, I have nothing to lose. I think I’m underrated anyway. I’m ranked pretty low in my opinion, so I come to show my value and skill-set. I’m just playing. Having fun.”
Mays weighed in at 275 pounds Sunday and showcased his quickness and balance as a future center. He beat multiple 300-pound defensive tackles, and even when he was bull-rushed by future 2021 star Dietrick Pennington, Mays showed an ability to quickly recover, reset and still win the rep.
Twice, in fact.
“I think I did really good,” Mays said.
“I didn’t test as well as I thought It would, but I came out there in the 1-on-1s and competed. I’m pretty happy with my performance. … We’re not in pads, so the bull rush didn’t mean much. You aren’t going to find many guys as quick as me.”
Mays was one of several Tennessee targets in the OL/DL group that also included 5-star Reggie Grimes, 4-star end Tyler Baron, his teammate at Knoxville Catholic, and 4-star offensive tackle Chris Morris. All four guys were among the top performers Sunday.
“Reggie and Tyler came out here and showed out. That doesn’t really surprise me,” Mays said. “Chris was really good, too.”
Mays, Baron and others at the Regional Opening still had plenty of juice after spending the day at Tennessee on Saturday running around on the practice field playing paintball. Mays, Baron, Keshawn Lawrence and Jay Hardy have formed a strong camaraderie, visiting Rocky Top together three times in the last two months.
“It was a lot of fun. It was different, which was fun. I had to show my combat skills. I got a few GAs and quality controls pretty good. I was trying to get Jim (Chaney) up in the look-out nest. He wasn’t even playing but at the end of every round I’d fire up a bunch of shots at him.”
Mays joked the guns needed to be recalibrated but said that didn’t stop him and his buddies from dominating Saturday. Just like at the Opening Regional.
“Me, Keshawn, Tyler, Jay Hardy. We were killing everybody,” he said.