After Justin Fields and Tate Martell were both granted immediate eligibility for the 2019 season, many fans felt that the NCAA was handing out waivers to anybody and everybody choosing to transfer schools. That wasn’t the case, however, for former Georgia TE Luke Ford, who shared Wednesday that the NCAA denied his request for a hardship waiver to play at Illinois in 2019. Ford, an Illinois native who elected to transfer at one season at UGA, may have just taken a big step toward getting that changed.

According to ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren, Ford, has retained attorney Tom Mars who has been highly successful at helping his clients, such as Justin Fields, Shea Patterson and others, avoid sitting out a year after transferring to another D1 school.

Earlier this month, Georgia fans showed support for Ford, helping get the #FreeLukeFord hashtag to trend on Twitter.