Mark Stoops holds his mom’s hand in this family photo that Mike Stoops posted on social media.
There are a lot of storylines for tonight’s Kentucky-Auburn game from UK needing a win to keep alive its hopes of another bowl trip to UK finally winning a home SEC game to how the UK offense will fare with its top two running backs injured to will the UK defense get shredded by big plays again.
However, the one storyline that resonates with me is that head coach Mark Stoops and his brother, linebackers coach Mike Stoops, are going to have to be coping with the passing of their mother earlier this week.
From what little I know of Evelyn Stoops, I am sure she would want her sons to coach. But also knowing the impact the passing of my mom two months ago had on me and still is daily, I cannot imagine the pain Mark and Mike Stoops have felt. I’m not sure how they could have been as focused as normal on a football game while grieving the loss of their mom even though I will admit staying busy the first few days after my mom’s passing helped me.
“My mother was a very special person to me and to so many people,” Mark Stoops said on the SEC coaches teleconference. “Much like my father, she was the type of person who had a great impact on everyone she meets, everybody she had met in her life, and certainly her family.
“My father died when I was relatively young in college and my mother has been a rock to all of us. Very special woman and she passed peacefully. We had been anticipating it probably since last Friday. So, she passed peacefully at home with my other brothers and sisters by her side. If I know my mom, she would be telling me to do what I’m doing. Get my butt back to work and try to make this team better.”
Mike Stoops posted this tribute to his mom on social media after her passing:
“She was a faithful Catholic, a spiritual leader and a joyful Irish lady. She was also, the best cheerleader and motivator. She was the heart of our family and a constant inspiration to all of us. We are blessed with a multitude of wonderful memories.”
I know Evelyn Stoops will still be keeping an eye on her boys today and know they will also be thinking about her at times during the game.
But I will tell you right now — there will be no second guessing of Mark Stoops during this game from me because coping with the loss of a loved one like he is doing is far more important than any single decision he will make tonight.
One Response
We don’t have a snowball chance in hell to win this game. The only way it happens is if Auburn has a ton of turnovers. We are going to be missing Maxwell Hairston and Deone Walker on defense. Out best 2 defenders. We are also without chip again and our second string back DSK. If Wilcox or Patterson go down who is going to play running back? Patterson has been out the last couple of weeks with a injury? Why does or injury report have like 15 guys and Auburn has only 5? Most of our team is hurt at this point in the season. You might as well let all the backups play and see what happens. If we lose this game which I think we will by a touchdown. The season is over. The only thing we can do is maybe spoil Texas or Tennessees season. I don’t see us beating even Louisville at this point. I really don’t care if we do lose to Louisville. Maybe we will see a coaching change if we don’t make a bowl this year. If we couldn’t get it done this year. What do you think will happen next year with a far less superior team? We usually have a better season when we don’t know what we have. Every time we think we know what we have this season is what happens. You even had older players who thought we could run the table lol. We lost to Vanderbilt at home the same year. We also lost to a bad Florida team and what’s looking like another bad south Carolina team. Yes we have a hard schedule but nobody has a harder schedule than Florida. We have a normal SEC schedule. We played Georgia Tennessee Ole Miss and Texas. That was the hardest 4 games on our schedule. The rest of the schedule should have been wins. And if this team was as good as advertised we should have won 2 of those 4 games. We won’t win any of them. If we lose to Auburn that’s what 12 straight home losses in the conference? Hell no that wouldn’t be tolerated at any other SEC school. Why is it tolerated here?