LSU safety Tamarcus Cooley helps stranded mom, kids change tire after practice

In the day and age of NIL and the NCAA Transfer Portal, kindness still doesn’t cost a dime.

Cayla Abad and her two small children of Hattiesburgh, Miss., were reminded of that Thursday afternoon after LSU safety Tamarcus Cooley stopped alongside a busy Louisiana road to help change a blown-out tire on their family vehicle. LSU Football’s social media team shared her story, originally posted to her personal Facebook page, Friday afternoon.

Abad retold the heartwarming tale of how Cooley, a LSU redshirt sophomore safety and former NC State transfer originally from North Carolina, pulled over next to her stranded car as she struggled in vain to loosen the lugnuts on the her blown-out tire. We’ll let her explain what happened next:

“I was struggling and failing to loosen the lugnuts on the old tire when Tamarcus stopped and asked if he could help,” Abad wrote in a Facebook post Friday morning. “He told me that he had just left football practice and was on the phone with his mom when he saw me. He said one of the reasons he stopped was because he would want someone to stop and help if it was her on the side of the road. That statement melted my heart.

“He had so many reasons to keep driving past us — I’m sure he was already exhausted from football practice, it felt like it was 9 million degrees outside, I was beginning to think those lug nuts were welded in place, and cars were speeding by dangerously close to us. Despite all of that, he changed the tire and refused to accept any money from me.”

After helping change the Abads’ tire, Cooley stuck around to take pictures with the family and even did the gentlemanly thing by pulling out into traffic to allow the family to merge without worry of incoming vehicles.

“This guy is a saint. He was so kind, patient, and thoughtful,” Abad recalled. “Even as we were leaving, he pulled into the lane first and stopped until we were back on the road safely.”

Suffice it to say, LSU and Cooley specifically just gained new lifelong fans from Mississippi in the Abads.

Cooley transferred into LSU this past January after starting nine games as NC State’s nickel defensive back last season. Cooley previously spent the 2023 season at Maryland, appearing in just two games after signing with the Terrapins as a threee-start safety in the 2023 cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Rankings.