Kentucky Wildcats will be facing a different Georgia team tonight

Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

In the past, Mark Stoops has always redshirted his offensive linemen for the Kentucky Wildcats.  This year however, there is one freshman that may stop that trend and get immediate playing time.  

"In his first two Kentucky recruiting classes, Stoops signed seven offensive linemen that made it to campus. All seven players spent their first season as Wildcats watching from the sideline. Now 6-foot-5, 315-pound 2015 signee George Asafo-Adjei will put that preference to the test. “George Asafo-Adjei is a guy who physically has everything you want,” Stoops said of his mid-year enrollee. “He’s extremely mature and works extremely hard. You just look at him, you walk around the building and look at him, he looks as good or better than anybody we have on our team, and he’s been here just a couple of weeks.” Asafo-Adjei was rated as a four-star recruit by 247Sports and a three-star recruit by the industry-generated 247Sports Composite ranking. He chose Kentucky over Louisville, Florida, Ohio State and Nebraska. By graduating a semester early from Lakota West High School in West Chester, Ohio Asafo-Adjei has a chance to be the rare freshman offensive lineman to play immediately. “I wanted to get in here early so I can have a chance to play early and just wanted to get stronger, get in the flow faster and just have a shot,” Asafo-Adjei said."

Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

I think that by now, we can all agree that the Big 10’s idea to make frehmen players ineligible was kind of a harebrained idea.  SEC commish Mile Slive pretty much said so yesterday. 

"It’s an idea that I’m very much against, and it turns out I have some powerful company in that regard, as SEC commissioner Mike Slive released this statement on Monday: “A lot of thought and preparation went into the new initial eligibility rules that go into effect in 2016,” Slive said. “It is more appropriate to implement these new regulations and understand their impact before applying additional eligibility restrictions that may be more cosmetic than effective. “Let’s step back and consider our goal. If we are trying to impact graduation rates and grade point averages, we have to remember that each college student has his or her own academic challenges. To put a blanket over these student-athletes with a year on the bench doesn’t address those individual needs to incentivize academic progress. Many students do come to college prepared both academically and athletically ready to compete in the classroom and in competition, and to penalize those students with a universal policy may create unintended consequences not beneficial to many student-athletes. “If this proposal is about student-athletes turning professional, we need to be careful not to create rules for a few that penalize the many. The universe of student-athletes who leave early for professional sports is very small compared to the numbers that participate in football and men’s basketball. And just because a student-athlete enters professional sports does not mean he or she has totally abandoned their academic pursuits.”"