Kenny Brooks says Mark Stoops is 'one of the best people that I have ever met in my life'

Kenny Brooks hasn’t been in Lexington enough to actually witness all the on-field success that Mark Stoops brought to Kentucky football, but he’s been around long enough to know what kind of person Stoops is.

Brooks, who is in year two coaching the Kentucky women’s basketball team, brought up Stoops in his postgame radio interview with Darren Headrick on Wednesday after the Wildcats took down Miami (FL) 64-48 in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

The conversation started with Brooks talking about his run-in with Will Stein — the new football coach replacing Stoops — at the Lexington airport on Tuesday. Brooks and Co. were preparing to fly to Coral Gables for Wednesday’s game against the Hurricanes, which just so happened to be at the same time Stein was arriving in town to get a lay of the land ahead of his introductory press conference also on Wednesday.

Brooks mentioned that his chief of staff at Kentucky, Tim Clark, even knows one of Stein’s expected hires, Pat Biondo (who will reportedly take over as Kentucky football’s general manager), from previous jobs in college athletics. Biondo was on the plane with Stein that landed in Lexington. Brooks and Stein spoke briefly before going their separate ways.

But Brooks also made sure to give Stoops his flowers.

“Coach Stoops is the salt of the earth,” Brooks said. “I know a lot of people just look at him and they see a coaching figure. But man, you get behind the scenes and you get to know that man. I texted him the other day and I said — and I meant it, he is one of the best people that I’ve ever come across in my 35 years of college athletics.”

Brooks then told a touching story of a time when Stoops went out of his way to help Brooks and his wife, who was still fighting her battle with cancer at the time. You can read the full quote below. It’s a long one, but one that will be worth it. You could hear the emotion in Brooks’ voice when telling the story.

“I’ll tell you a quick story if I have time. My wife — I’m getting chill bumps right now — my wife, it’s well-documented, was fighting cancer, and she had just rung the bell. And I had to go to the SEC meetings in May, and Coach Stoops, he was gonna give me a ride on his charter. And I couldn’t get there. I couldn’t get there and I was gonna have to go through a couple of different areas. And he said let me call you back. He called me back and he came and picked me up. We spent hours on the charter just me and him talking and I got to know him. What he did for me, what he did for my family: he dropped me off, got out of the plane, he walked out, he went and met my wife, he gave her a big hug. Ordinary people don’t — he’s a great person.

“And I know we want results and we’re in a results business, but man, that guy is one of the best people that I have ever met in my life. And I’m sure he’s gonna bounce back and do wonderful things but the lives that he’s touched, he is salt of the earth. BBN, you were very fortunate to have such a class act as a coach because sometimes, in this business, it gets a little twisted, and that guy always stayed the course and he is a wonderful person. I thank him for welcoming me and my family to Lexington and the way he was so gracious in his time, it was so genuine.

“Coach Stein, he has a wonderful opportunity to take this program to the next level, but I bet you, I bet you, I bet you, Coach Stoops will be right there cheering and rooting for him, for everybody, for BBN, for that football program, because he built it. I wasn’t here but I heard about, it wasn’t a whole lot of great things to cheer for before he got here. He made Kentucky football respectable. I just want to say thank you to Coach Stoops and for everything he’s done for me. He’s a class act. I’m sure BBN feels the same way.”

You can listen to the entire conversation by clicking on the video in the tweet below.

SOUND UP 🔊🆙

Following Kentucky’s win over Miami, Kenny Brooks shared a really special and touching story about Mark Stoops, thanking him for what he did for him and #BBN. pic.twitter.com/IyeDFsg0lc

— Phoenix Stevens (@PStevensKSR) December 4, 2025