Vicky Graff Photo
So much for the silence about Kentucky football.
On the same day ESPN predicted that there was a 0.1 percent chance for Kentucky to win the Southeastern Conference title — Vanderbilt and Mississippi State were listed at 0.0 percent — the Kentucky football program took a big hit when reports surfaced that associate head coach Vince Marrow was leaving.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Marrow reportedly is leaving for rival Louisville on a three-year deal according to ESPN college football writer Pete Thamel to become general manager of Louisville football where he will oversee roster management, recruiting and the transfer portal.
Marrow signed a three-year extension in September that pays him $1.3 million annually for his roles as associate coach, recruiting coordinator, tight ends coach and NFL liaison.
Louisville coach Jeff Brohm and Marrow played in the XFL together. Brohm has pursued Marrow several times but this time he has a package that lured Marrow to Louisville.
In December of 2021, Marrow said this at the Louisville Quarterback Club: “I love it when Louisville (football) does well. I want both (Kentucky and Louisville) to do well,” Marrow said.
When Brohm came after Marrow in December of 2022 after getting the Louisville job, Marrow went on X to stop the speculation he was leaving UK: “Normally I won’t respond to this crap that I reach out to any college coach for a job is straight BS. I think I’m pretty good at what I do that I don’t have to ask anyone to hire me. My work speaks for itself. This will be the last time I will respond to this crap. Go Big Blue,” Marrow posted.
In December of 2024, the rumors about Louisville started again along with speculation that UK head coach Mark Stoops and Marrow — who came to UK together — had a falling out.
However, Marrow again apparently turned down the job despite UK’s 4-8 finish but now obviously has had a change of heart that stunned several significant football contributors.
“I am in shock. This is worse than (former UK basketball coach Rick) Pitino. At least he left Kentucky for the NBA,” the football booster told me d
Michigan State, North Carolina and others had made runs at Marrow since his arrival at UK in 2013 but he always said no until this time. Marrow might have been the most beloved UK assistant coach ever and slowly had become the face of UK football because he was always so visible and interacting with fans and recruits.
During Marrow’s tenure, 247Sports Composite credited him with recruiting 37 four-star players and he locked down Kentucky and Ohio for Stoops. With the exception of one year, Marros was credited with signing at least five players every year and three times he signed 10 or more players.
Obviously, social media blew up with fans sad to see Marrow go who appreciated what he had done and others who were angry and disappointed with the timing of his departure as well as going to Louisville.
Numerous Kentucky fans reached out to me in various ways.
“Wouldn’t be surprised if Stoops left. He doesn’t seem to have much ‘capital’ left to leverage. Probably been quietly looking for a new opportunity,” one fan said.
Another Kentucky fan who lives in Tennessee is bracing for a letdown even from last year’s 4-8 finish.
“If Vince is leaving, that’s the end of Kentucky football. We will probably go back to winning two games a year and getting beat by 50 points by Tennessee every year,” he said.
A Kentucky high school coach texted me this: “Of all your assistants, you cannot lose Vince Marrow. It must have been really bad to go from UK to Louisville! I’m still shaking my head. Is this the beginning of the end? Can you imagine what Mark Stoops is doing tonight?.”
Stoops better be on to Plan B for the 2025 season. Finding a tight end coach is the easy part — think about former UK tight end C.J. Conrad who is coaching at Kent State and was a grad assistant at UK for Stoops/Marrow — but Marrow was also a fundraiser and recruiter as well as the most popular contact for UK football.
However, no matter how anyone spins this, the timing of Marrow’s departure after a 4-8 season and having him go to rival Louisville just is not a good look for the Cats.
31 Responses
Ouch!!
Well, hate to say Cal was right about anything……… but UK is now officially just a basketball school.
You can’t blame Morrow for wanting to get off of a sinking ship.
Getting off a sinking ship is one thing and most of us feel it is sinking but to go to hated competitor at this time of year would certainly qualify as act of treason. Vince goes from most loved to most hated. Hope he will be ready for the fallout.
I would hope Mike that he would be remembered for what he did at UK and not hated, especially since we don’t know what led him to make this move. I think I know him well enough to know how hard this was to do and that he may have had some other reasons for wanting to stay in the state
You are correct Larry. I didn’t mean from a personal hatred but you know there are many wackos out there. If the truth ever comes out, I am guessing he had good reasons which is on Stoops, but it is still hard to comprehend going to most hated rival.
If there was a falling out between Marrow and Stoops, the result is a further falling down for UK FB.
Regardless of the situation, the full blame must be laid on Stoops, who has failed the past 3 seasons in miserable fashion. The years of the HC without a clue on offense, yet controlling the offense, the OC and assistant coaches has taken a collective toll on UK FB and returned us to the chjoker days. 4 wins and 3 were against soft cupcakes!
Is this the time for the incompetent UK AD to give Stoops ANOTHER RAISE?
Marrow brought in talent and Stoops’ stubborn losing ways caused a lot of them to underperform. TE’s were banned from catching a pass – just a prime example of the Stiops influence.
It’s all over but the shouting – and a big part of the BBN won’t even be in the stadium this season to shout.
We had a playoff caliber team on paper in 2024 and we went 4-8. We can’t keep blaming a certain position for our failures and focus on the man in charge Stoops!
So when will Barnhart be held accountable for all the ridiculous contracts he ‘negotiated’?
Cal bailed him out, Stoops will not
Stoops will squeeze every penny and every year that he can squeeze out of Kentucky because his next head coaching job will be at a smaller school than Kentucky Football. He should coach Youngstown state and take all his cronies with him.
You can’t really blame him for looking for security in his job. I notice this isn’t a coaching position, so if he was looking for something like that, Stoops could have moved him over to whatever he wanted to do. This looks much worse on Stoops than it does on Marrow because it looks like Marrow just wanted to get away from Stoops.
This will probably be Stoops’ last year because I don’t see him having the answers. He has never been good with change.
The change of position to GM was a way of getting Marrow to be able to get out of his contract at UK, because of contract language a positions coach move would have meant a huge buyout to get Vince out of his UK contract, buy making him a (GM) per say, it facilitated the move.
Cal,Stoops familiar routes,falling outs with top assistant coaches,stupid remarks that infuriate the fan base, easy tickets out of town ! What’s that that Forrest Gump says, Stupid is….. , and something else about a box of chocolates 🍫 😆
Great points Danny. Common denominator for lot of issues is not Vince
Great perspective OldFan
It might be a bad look on the surface, but Stoops is probably going all in on the run and Gran knows what players you need for that. Great run blocking o-line men and those are much cheaper than the expensive pass blocking tackles etc. It’s not about recruiting , like it used to be, these players have agents now, it’s about who has the most $$ agents want to be paid too
Last year for Stoops…Don’t blame him. This is going down in flames.. Better get someone willing to attack the N.I.L.life. Its not going anywhere.
This speeds the end of the Stoops era for sure. Doubt he makes through the season. Ship is leaking in multiple spots. Marrow choosing not to go down with the ship, but aligning with the dirty birds mars his legacy forever.
NIL, x-fer portal & mega-conferences were not the landscape of CFB when Stoops / Marrow were at their best. UK will suffer through at least 1 more lousy season before Mitch pulls the plug.
After that, any rebuild will take a while – even in the portal era.
In short, when does basketball season start???
Disgusting!!
Great piece as usual Larry… Larry I would like to know what the hell is going at UK football. You are closer than we are to the program, I would really love to hear your personal opinion.. With Vince leaving who in my opinion you always got a honest opinion on what the team was really doing, really says a lot. Personally I believe we are screwed when comes to recruiting without Vince.. I hate to see him go to Louisville but something had to happen. Right Larry? Maybe he actually seen the writing on the wall, I just wish Mark Stoops could. Anyways get prepared to be in the basement for 3 or 4 years of miserable UK football . Good Luck Vince hope you much success and thanks for hell of job. You will always be a Wildcat to me..
I am with you Ray. I think this is a very bad move for UK football and believe egos got way too involved
The falling o out was because ???
• Marrow wanted get rid of the loser OC?
• Marrow wanted to get rid of the loser OL coach?
• Morrow wanted to have passes thrown to the awesome TE’s who seldom got called?
So many possible reasons, and they all seem to be because Stoops is not able & not willing to understand offense.
Good points Little Baron. Sure Stoops will never say and doubt that Marrow will elaborate, either
Eddie Gran has alot to do with this as well. He didn’t like the culture of players Marrow was bringing in (the only recruiter that ever gets 4* recruits) so there was a ton of head butting egomaniac situations going on between the coaches of Kentucky and all the while the fans think its that the players suck and Stoops sucks but the truth be told on paper last year we had a top 15 team. The coaches discipline and probably compartmentalized anger from every coach sets up for a stagnant locker room. The coaches are all to blame and should all be fired. Marrow is a good recruiter and relates more to the players. Really he should have been coaching over Stoops and has assembled most of Stoops success. If I was him I would have taken a head coaching job but I think he would have problems as a head coach as well. I just think its time for Kentucky to part ways with Youngstown Ohio all together. They came they saw and they destroyed everything they built up. This is Stoops last ride and he deserves it for what’s he’s accomplished but this needs to be the end as well. No more I’m going to work in my office and thats were he will be which is bs anyway. How much work can you get done from your office as a football coach. Stoops is so 2015 before the portal and nil. You have to adapt with the changes Cal and Stoops are both at the end of the road. Cal accomplished a little more with alot more potential, its time for a change with Mitch Barnhart there is where the problem lies.
Marrow sees what Brohm is building at Louisville. I can see Louisville in the football playoff this year. They were a eyelash away last year. Its easier to win at Louisville then at Kentucky in football. The ACC is absolutely terrible in football besides Clemson Florida State and a couple of teams here and there that have good seasons. If you switch Louisville and Kentucky’s schedule we too could be a playoff team this year and that’s the irony of it. What’s even more weird is that when Louisville historically plays SEC teams they usually win. It baffles me but its true.
We all can speculate why Vince decide to move on until he does his own explaining to the media. Good luck to him.
Jon Sumrall will be our coach in 2026. Barnhart needed Stoops contract to be around the 30 million $ mark to get rid of him. We couldn’t afford a 44 million buyout then you have to buy a football team and pay the next coach. I think we get Jon Sumrall on a 3 year 15 million dollar contract. With incentives for bonuses. Never give anyone over 4 years on a contract alot can happen in 4 years. We will buyout Stoops because he will refuse to leave otherwise. He was a hot commodity in college football considered a up and coming coach and if you’ve noticed the last 2 years no jobs have coke calling for him. He needs to be a MAC coach or Youngstown state. He went from LSU Florida and Texas A&M sniffing him to nobody wanting him. I think he was waiting on Iowa’s coach to retire but Iowa fans would not want Mark Stoops they are very competitive in the big ten and are really a way bigger football brand than Kentucky.
Stepping back a little bit from the travesty of this move, I can see how this happened. Not sure that the Big Dog got the better end of the stick in the long run. College football is changing by the minute these days. High school recruiting has lost some of its luster now that we are paying players to play and obtaining those "proven" players from the portal. We no longer will rely on purely developing players from high school recruiting but evaluating the players that are on the market to fit specific needs and making the investment.
Therefore, the if he wants to move up the Big Dog has to take a GM position somewhere else – Louisville. Eddie Grand already occupies that Spot at KY. Not much of a game coach but Eddie should not be underestimated as a talent evaluator. His pedigree goes back a ways. What we do not know is just how good an evaluator Morrow is. We know he can recruit but over his career at KY, only about 30% or so became solid starters and defended that position multiple years. Yes, there were really good ones but still 1 in 3?
I now think the rapid change of college football has caused devalued the recruiting side of the business in favor of talent acquisition, management and evaluation. I don’t think just being a good recruiter will cut it anymore. Just sayin’
Yea but don’t you think that 30% were the 4 star players or the leaders of the team?
Absolutely. But getting those players is different now. It’s all about the bucks not much about who is offering the bucks.
Jrow of rivals said he heard Louisville offered him around the same pay, plus 30% of any donations he brings in. If he brings in 20 million dollars , Vince gets $6m and he could probably easily get that, he’s very connected.