Mark Stoops has not asked offensive line coach John Schlarman to address the entire Kentucky football team often during Schlarman’s two-plus years of cancer treatments.
But with the spotlight back on Schlarman this week thanks to a profile from The Athletic, Stoops felt his inspirational assistant coach had the message the Wildcats needed as they tried for the program’s first win at Tennessee since 1984.
Just less than four hours later, it was Stoops addressing a jubilant locker room and handing the game ball from Kentucky’s 34-7 victory back to Schlarman.
“We’ve got to lean on each other,” Stoops said in his postgame speech, a video clip of which was tweeted by the team’s official account.