Mark Pope wises up, takes full responsibility for car running out of gas

It’s been a busy week for Mark Pope. Not only did he lead Kentucky to a 123-52 win over Kentucky Wesleyan in his first exhibition as head coach, he made headlines when he told the Field of 68 podcast that it was his wife Lee Anne driving their car when it ran out of gas in downtown Lexington on Tuesday morning. After tonight’s win, he did his best to make up for that marital blunder.

During his first postgame radio show with Tom Leach, Pope invited a fan to ask a question. Julie from Florida was determined to get to the bottom of the story, asking Pope who was really responsible for the car running out of gas.

“Are you asking who was in the car when the car ran out of gas, or who was responsible for the fiasco of running out of gas?” Pope said. “So the truth is, I will take full responsibility for everything that happened on that day.”

Last night, Pope insisted it was his wife driving on Tuesday morning, admitting that he would probably be in hot water for talking about it.

“We’re starting a Zoom compliance meeting — Lee Anne is going to kill me, by the way,” Pope said. “But we’re starting a Zoom compliance meeting at 9 AM and I get a phone call at 9:01, and it’s Lee Anne. She’s just run out of gas on the busiest street in Lexington, like a mile away from here. So I get the gas, we jump in the car, we run and the police are there. It’s this huge thing.”

Something tells me that even if Lee Anne was driving, Mark may have been responsible for pulling the car into the house almost on empty Monday night. Either way, they are the talk of Big Blue Nation right now. When asked about it tonight, Mark made it clear how much he adores his wife.

“Lee Anne is the best part of me,” Pope said in his press conference. “I’m super blessed that she’s my best friend. I’m madly in love with her. I still can’t believe that she takes the time to talk to me from time to time. Like, it just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m super blessed. Like, I’m really blessed. It’s just incredible. And she does tell me what to do, and I do it.”

Inside the Popes’ incredible love story

Want to hear more of Lee Anne and Mark’s story? Who doesn’t?

I sat down with both of them a few weeks ago for a feature that dropped on KentuckySportsRadio.com this morning. In it, you’ll learn all about Lee Anne’s upbringing as a coach’s daughter, her time in New York working for David Letterman, the early back-and-forth with Mark, and how she sacrificed her career so he could chase his — and how she had full veto power when he got the offer from Kentucky.

There’s way too much to cram in this subheading, so instead, I’ll direct you to the 10,000-word behemoth below. It’s worth the time, promise.

[“Our Dream”: How Lee Anne Pope helped chart the course for Mark Pope’s return to Kentucky]