Tennessee Vols OL Cooper Mays had perfect response to question about 'the real UT'

A year ago at SEC Media Days, Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel ruffled some feathers when he said "there's only one real UT and only one real right shade of orange".

Heupel, of course, was responding to a question about Texas joining the SEC.

A year later and the Longhorns are officially members of the SEC. And unsurprisingly, a question about "the real UT" popped up on Tuesday when Tennessee took center stage at SEC Media Days in Dallas.

This time it was Vols offensive lineman Cooper Mays, who happened to be wearing a cowboy hat, that was asked about the real UT.

And Mays, who is entering his final season at Tennessee, had the perfect response.

"Oh man, all I know is we were going 50 years strong before Texas was a thing," said a grinning Mays. "Then we had to go down there and save them a little bit, so that's what I got to say about it."

Mays, obviously, is referring to the Mexican-American War when over 30,000 Volunteers from the state of Tennessee responded to President James K. Polk's call for 2,600 Volunteers from each state to help the efforts in Texas.

Without Tennessee, there might not be a Texas. So it's gonna be tough for the Longhorns to ever win this "debate".

Related: Josh Heupel reveals who will call plays for the Tennessee Vols in 2024