ATLANTA (Aug. 28, 2023) - Officials today announced that Amobi Okoye and Ron Rogers will serve as honorary captains for their respective alma maters at the Aflac Kickoff Game between Louisville and Georgia Tech. The honorary captains will join the team captains at midfield for the pregame coin toss prior to the 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Sept. 1 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Representing the Louisville Cardinals as honorary captain will be former Louisville and NFL defensive tackle, Amobi Okoye. As the youngest player in the history of college football, Okoye began his collegiate career at the age of 16 and played for the Cardinals from 2003-06. During his senior year, Okoye started all 13 games registering 55 tackles, eight sacks and recovered three fumbles. Okoye later became the youngest player to ever be drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft at 19 when he was selected 10th overall by the Houston Texans. He then went on to play eight years in the NFL for the Houston Texans, Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys.
The honorary captain for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will be Georgia native and former NFL linebacker Ron Rogers. At Georgia Tech, Rogers started 32 games where he had 11 tackles for loss, four sacks and four interceptions. Rogers ranks third in school history with 435 career tackles, ninth in single-season tackles with 145 (1995 season) and third in school history with 21 single-game tackles vs. Clemson that same year. Rogers was then selected in the sixth round by the Baltimore Ravens in 1998.
In recognition of the Aflac Kickoff Game’s “Kickoff for a Cause” mission and September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, each honorary captain will be accompanied by a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta patient from the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center who is a fan of the teams playing in this year’s game. Joining Ron Rogers at midfield will be Will Chastain, a freshman at Georgia Tech studying Industrial Systems and Engineering, who was diagnosed last December with an ultra-rare vascular cancer, epithelioid hemangioendothelioma. Amobi Okoye will be accompanied by Drew Lawrence, a 12-year-old Cardinals fan who has spent the last three years fighting acute lymphocytic leukemia at Children’s.
The 20th edition of the nation’s longest-running kickoff game will feature an all-ACC matchup when the Cardinals and Yellow Jackets face off to open their seasons and conference play.
