With redshirt year behind him, A.J. Rose could be ready to shine
A.J. Rose was part of Kentucky's 2016 recruiting class that also included a host of other talented recruits from Ohio and elsewhere.
He redshirted during the 2016 season, waiting his turn as patiently as he could.
Now, with spring practice only weeks away, it could be Rose's turn to step up.
Rose was a respected three-star recruit and a dynamic athlete as a high schooler in Ohio. He's a running back at heart but was playing a bit out of position at quarterback, although he led Garfield Heights (Ohio) to more success than they had been accustomed to playing behind center. That's just the kind of dynamic athlete he was and is.
Benny Snell was also a three-star running back signee from Kentucky in that 2016 class, but he didn't redshirt. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards as a true freshman, surprising almost everyone - and perhaps everyone other than himself and those in his closest circle of family and friends - setting himself up for plenty of preseason hype going into next year.
But Snell's earlier-than-expected and more spectacular than anticipated arrival doesn't diminish Rose's opportunities to impact the Kentucky program moving forward. No, as circumstances would have it, Rose has a golden opportunity to shine as a redshirt freshman in 2017. So he hasn't had to wait too long.
Mikel Horton decided to transfer during the 2016 season, foregoing a final year of football in Lexington. Jojo Kemp exhausted his eligibility at the end of the TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville. Then, in the single most significant event as relates to Rose's forecast for playing time in 2017, Boom Williams announced, after the bowl game, that he would be passing on a senior year to try his hand in the NFL.
Rose's freshman year at Kentucky has had its ups and downs, as almost anyone else's first year of college would.
"You know, going up there you're making an adjustment after coming out of high school with all those accolades and accomplishments," the player's father, Asim Rose Sr., told Cats Illustrated this week. "Going to college you have to start all over again."
Rose's father was a scholarship athlete in college as well. He said he understands the "freshman blues," which he believes his son went through for a time.
"Once he saw, 'Okay, now I have to start all over and build my brand again,' and once he understood it, that's what really started everything up for him. You've got your good. You've got your bad. You're getting to know new people, new faces. You're having new conversations with people. Once he got over that and understood it's a change, everything else started making sense to him."
It started with Rose taking care of business in the classroom. He settled into a routine as a student-athlete managed the demands of SEC football, college life and the transition to a new home.
But getting comfortable in the classroom wasn't the only intellectual task that required hard work.
"Learning the playbook at the college level," Rose Sr., said. "That was a whole new ballgame for him. Once he got the playbook down he understood and was like, 'I'm glad I did redshirt.' The coaches don't want to put you in knowing that you don't know what you're doing. One little, small mistake, you know, can be costly. He understood that from talking to the coaches. So he said, 'You know what, I've gotta get my playbook down.' Then everything else made sense."
Rose didn't seem to struggle when it came to the physical demands of the strength program. He arrived at Kentucky weighing 195 pounds. He's now 214 pounds and noticeably bigger and stronger, his father said. All the while he's managed to keep his speed up. That speed was one of his best attributes as a high school athlete and running back prospect.
There was another transition that Rose didn't expect to make. While Vince Marrow was Rose's area recruiter, he expected to play under former Kentucky running backs coach Chad Scott, now an assistant coach at North Carolina.
"I would say during that process Coach Chad had a big influence on him," Rose's father said. "When that change happened he didn't understand it and he was upset. But at the end of the day I always told him, 'This is a business. You can be here one day and somewhere else the next.' That's just business."
Eddie Gran came in from Cincinnati to serve as not only Scott's successor in the running backs coach role, but also as the Cats' offensive coordinator.
He had a strong track record of helping Auburn pump out 1,000-yard rushers from his time at Auburn, and that resume is surely something that Rose and the other Kentucky running backs heard about. But resume aside, the first order of business was getting on the same page as Gran, on a personal level and in terms of a player-coach relationship.
"Once he met Coach Gran, coming in, he really took to him," Rose Sr., said. "They had their conversation once he got down there to campus."
Gran, not known for pulling punches, didn't pull any punches.
"He told him what it's going to take," Rose's father said. "He told him, 'If you're listening, if you follow me, everything else will work itself out.' He went down there and took everything in. I talked to (Rose Jr.) the other day and he loved the way Coach Gran came in and put his foot down. It's like I told him. Coach Gran's hard. Whatever you've got to do, you do it."
Rose's father said he couldn't be more proud of the way he's adjusting to college life and all it entails, and it's been a process with, as he mentioned, those highs and lows.
With Rose's redshirt season behind him and four full seasons of football left to play, not to mention a backfield with less depth than the one the Cats had going into 2016, his father believes that he's ready to shine.
There are signs that Rose could be ready to make a very big impact for Kentucky. It should be Snell, Rose and Sihiem King battling for carries in the spring. True freshman Bryant Koback could be part of the equation later, as the Cats' fourth scholarship running back, but he's coming back from a leg injury that ended his senior season of high school football and is causing him to continue with a rehab program now.
The biggest sign that Rose could be poised for a big redshirt freshman year is what happened at the end of last season. While Rose couldn't play in games and keep his redshirt, he could help the team in other ways.
Mark Stoops praised Rose when speaking with the media during the team's preparation for the TaxSlayer Bowl. He and the staff had Rose working as a scout team quarterback, as Kentucky's defense prepared to face Georgia Tech quarterback Justin Thomas and Paul Johnson's vaunted triple-option offense.
Rose's athleticism, and his history as a high school dual-threat quarterback, made him a perfect and obvious candidate to help the team prepare. That was a valuable contribution from a player who spent the season redshirting, and Stoops was obviously impressed with what he saw.
"He was in his element," Rose's father said of that time of bowl preparation. "In high school he took over the quarterback position and, like I told him then, it would make him pretty much like a triple-threat. He didn't really want to do it in high school but he took it to the next level last year and that was right up his alley. He was pretty much in the same position he was in during high school. He took that on and it was great for him."
While Rose didn't play last year he probably couldn't help but be a little excited about the different course the offense charted when compared to the years the unit was coordinated by Neal Brown and Shannon Dawson prior to 2016.
The arrival of Gran, and also the promotion of Stephen Johnson to the starting quarterback position after Drew Barker was injured, ushered in the age of ground and pound football and the end of any semblance of Air Raid.
Kentucky will have a more consistently dynamic and efficient passing game in 2017 if the coaches have their way, without question, but Rose is now rising on the depth chart as part of a backfield that just had two 1,000-yard rushers for the first time in school history. He'll be running behind an offensive line, praised by the SEC Network's Cole Cubelic as the best in the league, which returns entirely intact with the exception of center Jon Toth.
"He loves it," Rose's father said of his son's feelings on the change in offensive philosophy and production. "He's loving it. From that aspect, being on the sideline and watching Benny Snell come in and be such an impact player, you know, it's something that's motivational for him.
"He gets up every day, gets his classroom done, gets his morning workouts with the players, and he's ready."
The Rose family now has a date circled on their calendar. It's circled because it will be Rose's public debut, so to speak, for the whole of the Kentucky football world.
"April 14th," the senior Rose said. "Me, my wife and our family can't wait. The spring game. We can't wait to see it come to form for him."