Citrus Bowl will be emotional matchup for Kentucky's Stoops
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops worked the sidelines during a game at Kroger Field this season. (Jeff Drummond/Cats Illustrated)
Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
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@JDrumUK
Taking a small break from the hustle and bustle that accompanies the college football recruiting trail in December, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops got to reflect on just how emotionally significant his sixth consecutive bowl trip with the Wildcats became when it was announced Sunday they would face Iowa on Jan. 1 in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl.
Stoops played defensive back for the Hawkeyes from 1987-89. His older brothers, Bob and Mike, also traveled the pigskin path from Youngstown, Ohio, to Iowa City to wear the black and gold for legendary Iowa coach Hayden Fry.
This is no ordinary matchup for the UK boss.
"It's hard to put into words what the Iowa program has meant to us," Stoops said Sunday during a video teleconference for the Citrus Bowl. "... I remember as a young child, going and getting in the car, playing football games on Friday night, my dad coaching on Friday night; (then) getting in the car, driving 10 hours, arriving in the morning, watching my brothers play, and staying Saturday night; getting back in the car, driving another 10 hours back home."
Those trips with his father, Ron Sr., seemed to come rushing back to Stoops on this day. It was during the youngest Stoops' playing career at Iowa that he received a call in October of 1988 that his father had passed away at the age of 54 after suffering a heart attack while coaching a game for Cardinal Mooney High School.
He admitted this bowl game will have a different meaning for him than any other in which he has participated.
"I'm sure it will be different for me, being that my father has my game jersey from the Hawkeyes, very neatly folded and put and placed in his casket where he's buried in my jersey with the black and gold," Stoops said.
It was a tough time for the self-described "very average player," who returned from his father's funeral on a Wednesday and blew out his knee that Saturday in a game against Michigan, for all intents and purposes ending his football career after he had worked his way into the Iowa starting lineup as a safety.
But one of the lasting positive memories from that week, Stoops said, was how Fry's staff -- including current Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz -- took a day off from preparing for their matchup with the Wolverines to attend his father's funeral. "Just shows you what kind of people they are."
He went on to spend two years as a graduate assistant with the Hawkeyes, helping shape what he would later become. "I felt so comfortable with those coaches. They were really like fathers to me during my time there. And they were just such great people, such a great organization. And that's what I try to be for our players and try to be there and support them during good times and the bad."
The relationship has come full circle for Ferentz, now in his 23rd season as head coach at Iowa, who recalled the youngest Stoops making his recruiting visit to Iowa in the mid-80s.
"I'll never forget, when Mark was in on his visit, I walked by (defensive coordinator Bill Brashier's) office and he was talking to Mark," Ferentz recalled. "Later on, we had a staff meeting after the recruiting weekend, and Bill made the comment, he goes, 'You know, if this wasn't a Stoops, I would have sworn there's no way this guy is going to be a college football player.'
"His point was that Mark at that time probably looked like he was 15, just a really young-looking high school senior. Coach had his mind made up on that one already (that Stoops could play). Certainly, it panned out."
Ferentz says it makes for an even more intriguing matchup between No. 15 Iowa (10-3) and No. 22 Kentucky (9-3) than it already might have been.
"Mark's done just a phenomenal job with the program there," he said. "So a little personal aspect to it. But it's going to be a great thrill for us to have a chance to compete against their football team. We'll have our hands full, I'm sure of that."
The game may be almost a month away, but Kentucky's players are already feeling motivated to win this one for their coach.
"It's really big for us," said UK grad senior center Luke Fortner. "He talked a lot about the way he felt when he was at Iowa. And I think the best thing about it is I believe that's the way we feel about Coach Stoops. And the coaching staff here are father figures to us and they make us feel comfortable... So to get a win over Iowa for Coach Stoops, it would mean a lot to us."
