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Tag: Christian Mays

  • Georgia Handles Auburn Loss Like an Adult, Flips Tennessee’s No. 1 JUCO Defensive Lineman Before Knoxville Finished Sweeping Up

    Georgia Handles Auburn Loss Like an Adult, Flips Tennessee’s No. 1 JUCO Defensive Lineman Before Knoxville Finished Sweeping Up

    Christian Mays, the nation’s top-ranked JUCO D-lineman, flips from the Vols to the Dawgs. Georgia goes to 24 commits, Tennessee drops to 18, and Kentucky moves up a spot in the SEC rankings without getting off the couch.

    By T-Rohn, Gridiron Gumbo

    Tennessee fans spent Saturday night on the Neyland Stadium grass. Sunday, the SEC sent the bill: $500,000. Monday at 8:42 a.m. CT, Georgia sent a second bill. This one was also non-refundable, and it plays nose tackle.

    The news, straight up

    CONFIRMED: Georgia flipped defensive lineman Christian Mays, rated a four-star by 247Sports (a three-star in the industry 247Sports Composite), from Tennessee on Monday, Oct. 19, around 8:42 a.m. CT. Rivals (Steve Wiltfong) and 247Sports (Benjamin Wolk) reported it independently, minutes apart.

    CONFIRMED: Mays plays at Northeast Mississippi Community College in the 2027 class. Both Rivals and 247Sports rank him the No. 1 JUCO defensive lineman in the country. 247Sports lists him at 6-foot-5 and 340 pounds.

    CONFIRMED: He had been committed to Tennessee since early June. Georgia offered in mid-September, hosted him on an official visit for the Auburn game this weekend, and closed.

    REPORTED: Through seven games this season he has 15 tackles and a forced fumble, according to the NMCC football site as cited by Tennessee On SI. Texas and Auburn were among the other programs pursuing him, per the same report.

    CONFIRMED: As of Oct. 19, Georgia’s commit count went from 23 to 24 and Tennessee’s from 19 to 18. Update (Oct. 22, 2026): Georgia is back to 23 after linebacker Temorris Campbell Jr. decommitted, per 247Sports. Every move is logged on our SEC Recruiting Hub, which updated at 9:05 a.m. CT.

    Why it matters for Georgia

    REPORTED (247Sports): Mays gives Georgia a true nose tackle. He’s the most 0-technique type in the Bulldogs’ 2027 class so far. That’s the guy who lines up over the center and makes two offensive linemen argue all afternoon about whose turn it is.

    REPORTED (247Sports): He’s the fourth player to flip to Georgia this fall after an in-season official visit, and the second JUCO addition of the fall.

    Four flips. One autumn. At this point a Georgia official visit should come with a change-of-address form and a moving truck idling in the parking lot.

    CONFIRMED: Auburn beat No. 1 Georgia 27-24 on a field goal as time expired Saturday in Athens. Most fan bases handle that by staring at a wall. Georgia fans did the five stages of grief in 40 hours: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and flipping somebody else’s best defensive line commit.

    Why it matters for Tennessee

    CONFIRMED: Tennessee beat then-No. 6 Alabama 26-10 on Saturday. Fans stormed the field. On Sunday, the SEC fined the school $500,000, payable directly to Alabama.

    REPORTED (Knox News, The Tennessean): Stadium security kept fans from tearing down the goalposts. They stayed up.

    REPORTED (UGA Wire, Sept. 15): At that point, Mays was Tennessee’s only defensive line commitment in the 2027 class.

    So here’s the Vols’ weekend. Saturday: beat Alabama. Sunday: write Alabama a check for half a million dollars. Monday: watch Georgia leave with the defensive tackle. That’s not a weekend. That’s a country song with a box score.

    Tennessee paid $500,000 and didn’t even get to keep the goalposts. Security spent Saturday night guarding two yellow poles like they were the crown jewels. Nobody was guarding the defensive line commitment.

    The rankings shake-up

    CONFIRMED (247Sports Composite, updated Oct. 19): Tennessee slipped from 9th to 10th in the SEC. Kentucky rose from 10th to 9th. Kentucky sits at 241.36 points and Tennessee at 238.81.

    Kentucky did not sign anybody to make this happen. Kentucky moved up the way my uncle wins at bourré: sitting perfectly still while everybody else at the table panics.

    And this is the same Kentucky that CONFIRMED paid LSU $500,000 for its own field storm after beating the Tigers 35-34 in overtime on Oct. 10. So Kentucky spent half a million dollars on a party, then got a free ranking bump nine days later because a different school’s party went worse. That’s not a recruiting strategy. That’s a coupon.

    Lagniappe Stat (CONFIRMED): In that same 247 Composite, Mississippi State is 16th of 16. I bring this up as a State fan because a 247Sports four-star defensive lineman was playing football in Mississippi this whole time, and I need somebody to talk to.

    The Gumbo Take

    (TAKE, not news.) Mais, let me tell you about roux.

    Nobody posts a picture of the roux. Nobody orders “extra roux.” But you skip it, and what you’ve got is shrimp floating in sad brown water while your in-laws ask if you “used a recipe.” A nose tackle is the roux of a defense. Nobody buys his jersey. Everything falls apart without him.

    Georgia just put a big ol’ cast-iron skillet of dark roux on the stove. Tennessee, if that September report still holds, is standing at the boil with corn, potatoes and a sack of sausage, and no crawfish in sight.

    Fair is fair. Tennessee isn’t wrecked. The Vols just beat Alabama, and it’s October, not National Signing Day. A good program re-stirs the pot. And Georgia fans, a recruiting win on Monday does not un-kick Saturday’s field goal. That ball is still going through the uprights in Athens. It’ll go through every night this week, around 2 a.m.

    Mays, for his part, made a smart football call at a premium position. The No. 1 JUCO D-lineman in the country picking an SEC home is good for the league. Ça c’est bon.

    Quick bites from the pot

    • Cousin Thibodeaux (fictional, always wrong) says he called this flip back in June. He called it for Vanderbilt.
    • Georgia doesn’t recruit the Southeast. It runs a Shop-Vac across it and sorts the bag later.
    • Tennessee’s weekend ledger: $500,000 paid to the team it beat, zero goalposts acquired, one defensive tackle lost. Somewhere a financial advisor in Knoxville is breathing into a paper bag.
    • (SATIRE) Kentucky celebrated the bump by storming its own break room. The SEC fine is pending.

    The last spoonful

    Georgia lost on Saturday and won on Monday. Tennessee won on Saturday and lost on Monday. Kentucky did nothing at all and came out ahead. That’s SEC recruiting in one sentence, cher.

    At press time (SATIRE), Tennessee fans had returned to Neyland to finally take those goalposts down, just to feel something. The SEC mailed the invoice in advance.

    Labels: CONFIRMED = verified by two or more reliable sources or official records. REPORTED = from one reliable outlet. RUMOR = unverified (none used here). TAKE = T-Rohn’s opinion. SATIRE = jokes, not facts.

    Sources

    Correction (Oct. 22, 2026): An earlier version called Mays a four-star without naming the rating service. He is a four-star in 247Sports’ own rating and a three-star in the 247Sports Composite.

    Update (Oct. 22, 2026): Added an “as of Oct. 19” date to the commit counts. Georgia now has 23 2027 commits, per 247Sports.

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