Despite being 40 weeks removed from his transfer decision, Joey Gatewood is still sitting around waiting for the NCAA and the SEC to decide whether the former Auburn quarterback will be eligible to play for Kentucky this season.

While the NCAA has always had a rule forcing undergraduate players to sit out a season following a transfer, as time goes on, more and more undergraduate players that file a waiver are being given the freedom to move from one school to another and play immediately the next season at their new school.

Somewhat complicating Gatewood’s waiver is the fact that Kentucky is set to open the season against the QB’s former team on Saturday, Sept. 26.

According to a recent report from Travis Graf of Rivals, the NCAA has approved Gatewood’s waiver but the hold up in the process comes from the SEC. According to Graf, Kentucky and Auburn have a “gentleman’s agreement” in which Auburn will not stand in the way of Gatewood getting a waiver as long as the quarterback does not take the field in the season opener.

While Mark Stoops didn’t get into the specifics of that report, he did share the latest on Gatewood’s waiver status during his most recent coaches show appearance.

“I feel very good about it,” Stoops said on the show. “Obviously, coming off the year that we had, last year you needed to improve the depth (at the QB position). We need to get some guys healthy, and I feel very strong. We’re still waiting on the waiver – it is a two-part process. The NCAA, and also the SEC because we’re going from one SEC school to another.

“I feel good about that I mentioned last week, but you never know until it’s done. So hopefully, we’ll hear something this week. It does start affecting the reps at this point, because you don’t we don’t have clearance yet. So, we have to move forward until we get that final waiver. So, we’ll see where that goes, I anticipate to get an answer this week.”

You can check out the full clip of Stoops discussing the matter courtesy of the UK Sports Network: