Vince Marrow was always a Wan'Dale Robinson fan but had no idea exactly how tough Robinson was. (UK Athletics Photo)
Wan’Dale Robinson finished his only season at Kentucky with 104 catches for 1,334 yards — both school records. Recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow did all he could to get Robinson to UK after he graduated from Western Hills High School in Frankfort. Robinson verbally committed to UK but later flipped and signed with Nebraska where he had two productive seasons but nothing like what he had this season after transferring to Kentucky.
So is this what Marrow thought Robinson would do?
“I got to be honest. Watching him in high school, recruiting him since ninth grade … I was recruiting him but thought this kid is small and at the time Kentucky football was just coming on. I thought he could make an impact in the SEC,” Marrow said.
“When I watched him at camps, he was killing dues with four or five stars going to Alabama and marquee places. I knew he had a chance to be special.”
Marrow didn’t quit watching Robinson when he went to Nebraska.
“The kid is electrifying,” Marrow said. “When we recruited him, he was supposed to take the torch from Lynn Bowden.”
Robinson was so good his one year that he is leaving for the NFL where is projected as a possible early third-round draft pick.
Marrow thinks one thing he learned about Robinson this year that he didn’t know will help him in the NFL.
“What I didn’t know is that he was the toughest kid you could find,” Marrow said. “I thought Lynn Bowden was tough but this kid is right up there with him. That is the one thing about Wan’Dale that really surprised me.”
5 Responses
Does anyone have any thoughts on why Wan’Dale flipped from UK to Nebraska ? Strange.
UK football is going to miss Robinson.
Robinson left Nebraska because he was being used also as a running back, not just on sweep plays.
Nebraska still thinks it is relevant in football. Maybe WanDale got caught up in that and don’t discount the Big Ten. They play football up here.
Steve in Dayton
Most high school athletes have decision motives based on very little actual real-world experience. I would bet that if you asked scholarship athletes that are two years into their collegiate career what the real world is compared to what they expected going in, you would get the answer, "completely different". I think that NIL has made a big difference in the above postulation. Today with NIL, it’s all about the money which makes it much easier to keep score. Now they can measure reality vs what they were sold very easily and the transfer portal will start humming going forward. Look for the NCAA to start looking at transfer portal/commitment contracts regulation very quickly as transfer portal chaos ensues.