Mayo to follow in his fathers footsteps

Rocky Top, you’ll always be home sweet home to me. Those words ring truer than ever for Dalton, Ga., three-star offensive center Cameron Mayo, who announced just moments ago at his football banquet that he’s going to follow in the footsteps of his father and attend Tennessee.

Mayo’s father, Bill, was an All-America offensive lineman at Tennessee and Mayo has always been a life-long Tennessee fan.

But early in the recruiting process, Tennessee didn’t heavily recruit Mayo, who is 6-foot-5 and 258 pounds, and he ended up committing to Auburn toward the end of his senior season. However, the roller-coaster coaching situation at Auburn caused Mayo to open things back up, and he visited Ole Miss, Auburn and Tennessee.

And It was a visit to Knoxville this past weekend that Mayo felt deep down that he found his home. But the final decision didn’t come until earlier today.

“I went to math class and then to English class, and after that I just wondered around the halls at school thinking about my decision,” Mayo said. “I must have committed to each of the three schools about 100 times in my head. But after hours of praying and just thinking things over, it all pointed to Tennessee.

“This was the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do. Before this, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how difficult the decision-making process was. If you would have graded it as hard as I did, then it would have drove you crazy. I’m not usually emotional, but I really cried when this was over.”

And in the end, it was tears of joy for the Vols.

“I don’t know why it was Tennessee,” Mayo said. “I guess it was a number of things, the top one being the tradition there at Tennessee. I also still have the same opportunities to play early there that I would have had at Auburn and Ole Miss. I also had a great time on my official visit. It just felt like home.”

Home sweet home that is.