‘We love you Coach Schlarman. We love you deuce-deuce.’ UK celebrates Gator Bowl win.
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Gator Bowl wrap-up: Kentucky 23, North Carolina State 21
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s Kentucky-North Carolina State Gator Bowl football game at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.
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As they celebrated their win over North Carolina State in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, Kentucky’s players paid tribute to the late John Schlarman as well as sidelined teammate Chris Oats.
Schlarman, Kentucky’s offensive line coach since Mark Stoops was hired in 2013, died on Nov. 12 following a battle with cancer going back to 2018. Oats, a junior linebacker, has not been with the team since last spring, during which he suffered an undisclosed medical event that resulted in his placement into a rehab facility. He remains in the midst of recovery with his family in Ohio.
“All glory to God,” UK offensive lineman Kenneth Horsey, who earlier in the day was named one of three Mayo Clinic Comeback Players of the Year, said in a social-media video released by Kentucky’s athletic department. “We love you Coach Schlarman. We love you deuce-deuce.”
Deuce-deuce is a reference to No. 22, the number worn by Oats. That jersey number was worn throughout the 2020 season by other UK players as part of a season-long tribute; Cedrick Dort, who was ruled medically unavailable late in the week, wore it on the sideline Saturday. Offensive linemen began wearing No. 65, the number Schlarman wore during his playing days at Kentucky, midway through the season. Center Drake Jackson wore it Saturday.
“That was for Chris, that was for Schlarman, all of ‘em,” linebacker Jamin Davis said in the video.
Mark Stoops late in the video was surrounded by a circle of players and danced in a celebratory manner. It was tame by his own high standards; Stoops once accidentally punched a hole through a ceiling while crowd surfing after a victory.
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