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On Mother’s Day, a tip of the cap to some SEC Super Moms

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:

They say there’s no harder job in the world than being a mom. Though I’ll never experience that, I’m going to assume that’s accurate.

Now imagine being a mom while dealing with the ever-bright spotlight of the SEC. If that’s not the hardest job in the world, I don’t know what is.

On Mother’s Day, I thought it’d be fitting to honor some of the moms who have had to handle that challenge.

Some moms have been doing that for longer than others. In fact, some of the SEC Super Moms listed here are totally new to the scene. But for one reason or another, they’re also worthy of some extra praise on this Mother’s Day.

Shoutout to all moms, and especially these SEC Super Moms:

Terry Saban

Terry Saban, AKA Miss Terry (and Nick Saban’s wife), has been a massive part of Alabama’s success in the 21st century. That’s no secret. In December, the couple will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. As the Alabama coach has said in the past, “I don’t know why she puts up with me but I’m very fortunate.” Nick is fortunate that Miss Terry was there to help raise their 2 kids, Kristen and Nicholas, who are now parents themselves. 

For the last 30 years, Nick Saban has either been an NFL coordinator, an NFL head coach or a Power 5 head coach. That can’t be an easy thing to grow up with. Saban has essentially been one of the most popular football coaches in America for the majority of their lives. At high-profile jobs like LSU and Alabama, that’s no small task to juggle. Miss Terry’s status as the rock of the Saban family has been well-documented. And sometimes, that includes giving mom-like tough love to her husband:

Miss Terry took care of Nick post-back surgery, and she even quarantined with him this past year when he tested positive for COVID ahead of the Iron Bowl (he was upstairs and she was downstairs in their home during the game). Miss Terry said she developed a new appreciation for what her husband does on a day-to-day basis after that unique experience, but there was a line in the sand drawn. She couldn’t handle his emails anymore.

After all, every mom has her limits.

Cheryl Beamer

Think about this — your husband coaches college football for 50 years and then your son picks up right where dad left off. Cheryl Beamer knows that life well from having been at the side of her husband, Frank, for over half a century. Now with her son, Shane Beamer, running things at South Carolina, Cheryl Beamer gets to experience what it’s like to be the mom of an SEC head coach.

(Shane also has a sister, Casey, who works in the marketing department for the Carolina Panthers. Ya think the Beamers like football?)

The former “first lady of Virginia Tech” helped Shane pursue his passion for sports at a young age. Cheryl would drive Shane “all over Virginia” for various sporting events, and she didn’t miss any of them. When Shane expressed interest in following in his dad’s footsteps, Cheryl didn’t try to talk him out of it. She instead became his biggest supporter. After Shane became a coach, he said within 5 minutes after every game, he had a call from his mom.

And Cheryl Beamer wasn’t just a supportive football coach wife/mom. She was also tough as nails. How tough, you ask?

One time while vacationing at the family lake house in Georgia, she was carrying one of her grandchildren when she tripped over a dog. Cheryl suffered a broken clavicle, 6 broken ribs and she had pins put in both her legs. Even crazier? When they did the X-rays, they found that she had a previous fracture in her left leg.

If there’s such a thing as “dad strength,” Cheryl Beamer is living proof that “mom strength” is absolutely real.

Megan Mullen

The wife of Dan Mullen, AKA Mama Mullen, has over a decade’s worth of mom experience in the SEC. In addition to being the mother of their kids, Breelyn and Canon, Megan Mullen famously prides herself on being a mom to all of Mullen’s players.

“They are our children. I have 2 at home, and then I have a furry baby, a big baby as a husband and 119 others,” she told Rivals in 2018.

Megan Mullen’s mom-like tradition of kissing players on the cheek and giving them a hug upon stepping off the bus drew criticism from some, but more importantly, it drew support from Florida players like Trevon Grimes, who clapped back by tweeting that “Mrs. Mullen has been nothing but a blessing to us players.”

Megan Mullen’s maternal instincts took over when Feleipe Franks suffered a season-ending injury against Kentucky in 2019. She said that she had never been as heartbroken during a game as she was when she saw Franks go down. In addition to providing emotional support, Megan Mullen took it to the next level. She made Franks some post-surgery chicken noodle soup.

Mama Mullen, indeed.

Lindsey Drinkwitz

If you’re not familiar with the wife of Eli Drinkwitz, or the role she played in his meteoric rise in the coaching ranks, here’s what you need to know. Well, beyond the fact that as the wife of a Power 5 coach, she’s helping raise 4 daughters (via The Athletic).

In 2009, Eli Drinkwitz had a pretty nice gig. He was Springdale (Ark.) High School’s offensive coordinator, and he was a teacher. Stability wasn’t lacking, which was good considering that his wife, Lindsey, was on maternity leave after giving birth to their first daughter. Gus Malzahn came back to Springdale, where he had been the head coach from 2001-05, to present Drinkwitz with an offer — come coach at Auburn.

But mind you, it wasn’t coming to Auburn to be an on-field assistant. It was a grad assistant position that paid $15,000 a year without any benefits. So what did Lindsey say? That if they didn’t take the leap, they’d always regret it.

Enough said.

That’s how Drinkwitz, who met Lindsey when they were at Alma High School together (she was a year older), rose into the college ranks. He spent a decade climbing the college coaching ladder, all while he and Lindsey welcomed 3 more baby girls.

Needless to say, Lindsey’s input paid off (literally). Fittingly, the father of 4 daughters signed a $4 million deal to become Mizzou’s head coach in December 2019.

Nothing is certain in the SEC, but one thing that is? Drinkwitz’s cheering section will never be lacking in Columbia:

Kristy Brockermeyer

Imagine being a mother of 2 boys when the doctor walks in and says, “hey, you’re having twin boys. Oh, and by the way, they’re both going to follow in the footsteps of their father and become Power 5 offensive linemen. Good luck!”

I’m not sure if that’s an exact quote from the doctor who told Kristy Brockermeyer that she was having twin boys, but I can only assume it went something like that. She raised Tommy and James Brockermeyer, who both enrolled early at Alabama after signing as decorated high school recruits out of Fort Worth, Texas.

In addition to keeping her sons on the right path, Kristy didn’t steer them on a path to Austin, which is where her family ties run deep. Kristy graduated from Texas in 1995. Her husband, Blake, was an All-American offensive lineman at Texas before playing 9 years in the NFL. Their second son, Luke, is entering Year 4 as a linebacker at Texas. Their oldest son, Jack, put football on the back burner in college and graduated from Rice in 2020.

But let’s get back to the original point. Tommy Brockermeyer is now 292 pounds while James clocked in at 270 pounds. There are pregnancies, and then there’s that.

If and when the Brockermeyer twins become stud offensive linemen in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide faithful had better thank their lucky stars for Kristy Brockermeyer.

Laura Rutledge

I’m not sure any of us will ever fully understand the challenge of being on a major network while pregnant. Rutledge is hardly the first or the last woman to endure that often overlooked process, but to say that the SEC Nation/Get Up! (and now) NFL Live host crushed it would be an understatement.

After Week 1 of the 2019 college football season, when Rutledge was 8 months pregnant, she went on maternity leave. Rutledge and her husband Josh Rutledge, who she met at the LSU-Alabama tailgate in 2011, welcomed their baby daughter, Reese, in the middle of the 2019 college football season. And naturally, Rutledge returned to the SEC Nation set a few weeks later for Auburn-LSU.

You know, not that Rutledge’s ability to multi-task has ever been in question.

We might not have to wait too long to see Rutledge take Lee Corso’s spot on College GameDay. To be clear, that’s in reference to Reese Rutledge, who not only went 11-2 picking college games on SEC Nation this past year, but she also correctly picked the Super Bowl:

Passing down values and wisdom is all well and good.

But passing down football knowledge? That’s a Super Mom.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.

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