Through all the legal drama that surrounded him as he came back for another, and final, season of college football, Kentucky Football linebacker Alex Afari Jr. is still absolutely a player worth rooting for.
“It was always coming back to Kentucky,” Afari said following a recent practice. “This is where I started, and this is where I wanted to finish. I didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
Look, Afari didn’t have to come back to Kentucky. Whenever there’s a coaching change, at any school, there’s always
going to be a substantial contingent of players who transfer out like there is of players who transfer in.
Given that this is Afari’s last season of college football, he could have left for another program, one that wasn’t breaking in a first-time head coach with one of the nation’s most daunting schedules. He still chose to come back to Kentucky. That’s another credit to Will Stein and this coaching staff.
“The coaches bring the energy every day,” Afari said. “They hold you accountable to play. They hold the players accountable, and they bring energy every day. You can just feel it’s contagious around the building. You can just feel it.”
It also helps that Afari is thriving in new Kentucky defensive coordinator Jay Bateman’s system.
“I make a lot of plays in this defense, and it’s aggressive,” Afari said. “He (Bateman) blitzes you a lot, and we cover a lot as well, (cover) tight ends and running backs as well too. He does a good job teaching us. He’s our linebacker coach. He’s in the room with us every day, learning the plays and drawing them up on the board and telling us exactly what we got to do and stuff like that.”
This past Saturday, when the Cats knocked off No. 9 Texas A&M, was Afari’s first full participation in a game this season. He logged 32 snaps in College Station after getting just three snaps in vs. Youngstown State and zero vs. Alabama.
Afari’s playing time and snap counts are going to be substantial the rest of the way, and Kentucky fans get at least nine more games of watching him play in the blue and white.
