Jeremy Pruitt offers the latest on Cade Mays' waiver to play immediately: 'It's kinda time to make a decision'

Tennessee finally got the news it was hoping for last week when the NCAA granted offensive lineman Cade Mays his eligibility to play immediately this season for the Vols, but that didn’t mean the Knoxville native was completely cleared to see the field in Saturday’s game against South Carolina.

No, in order for Mays to be eligible this season, Tennessee still needs a waiver from the SEC due to the fact the offensive lineman is an undergraduate transfer and left one SEC program (Georgia) for another this offseason.

Is there any reason Mays shouldn’t get that waiver from the SEC?

Here is what Jeremy Pruitt had to say when asked that question during his most recent appearance on Knoxville-based WNML radio show “The Nation” on Sunday evening.

“No. I’m kinda curious… I haven’t heard anything from the SEC,” Pruitt said on the show. “Coach Fulmer actually talked to Greg (Sankey) and I was going to follow up this evening. It’s kinda time to make a decision on what we gonna do here. I don’t know if they’re going to do case-by-case, or if they’re going to just wholesale say everybody’s eligible but it would be a shame to not let these guys play football. You can see all over the country how the Big Ten’s now playing.

“Every week, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. There may be teams that have to cancel games because they don’t have enough players so why would we not let guys play that want to play?”

Game week is finally here and yet Mays and Tennessee continue to wait to get the green light to play the lineman. As Pruitt said, time is running out to make a decision in Birmingham.