Since assuming control at his alma mater in 2023, Jeff Brohm has quickly made the Cardinals a force in the ACC, leading them to a 19-8 record in his first two years and a conference championship game appearance. Just when it appeared Brohm’s Cardinals could not add any more dominance, the coach went and did something that shook the state–and beyond. He enticed Vince Marrow, the veteran Kentucky’s longtime recruiting coordinator, to serve as Louisville’s new Executive Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting.
Marrow, who spent more than a decade fashioning Kentucky into a recruiting powerhouse, universally earns recognition as one of the best in the business at developing relationships and attracting top recruits. His hiring immediately changes the in-state recruiting equation and provides Louisville with a major advantage in the fight for Kentucky’s top high school players. Brohm and Marrow go back to their XFL days, as both were teammates at Orlando Rage. Brohm attempted several times to hire Marrow to his staff before finally getting it done this summer. Marrow’s new stint at Louisville is going to be an epic tale, but he hasn’t joined without firing a few playful jabs at his new colleagues.
Marrow’s candid remarks about his new bosses and former competitors in a recent interview session conducted on June 20 raised some eyebrows. “We went through some battles. Some of them guys are already on the staff,” Marrow says on the WHAS 11 channel. “When I walked in Monday, Barkley and some of them other guys started laughing because you know, at the time I was up the way.” He chuckles as he reminisces about the good ol’ days, when recruiting against Louisville was, in his words, “easy.”
He continues, “When I go in recruiting, it doesn’t matter if my mother is over there recruiting. I’m going to try to beat the crap out of you…These guys, we all work in recruiting; you’re always going to run cross paths with them. I know this arrival here. But you know, I had some good relationships with some of Jeff’s guys. I love Jeff.” Marrow’s record is self-explanatory of his claims. At Kentucky, he signed 66 four-star recruits, 14 of whom ranked in the top 200 and five of whom ranked in the top 100, and he ranked each of his recruiting classes in the top 40 in the country while on staff.
Marrow forged connections that lasted for years and left a lasting impression on players and families alike. He also admitted he has already established ties with some of Brohm’s current players, having encountered them on the recruiting trail. He teases that it was simple to recruit against Louisville with former head coaches, “when that other guy was here [Scott Satterfield], it was a little easier, and now with going against Jeff, it was like okay we really got to pull up our sleeves and go to work.”
There was a feeling that, under former Louisville head coaches, the Cardinals just weren’t as sharp or as hungry on the trail. Recruits would occasionally tell them that they didn’t pick up on the same level of energy or vision from Louisville. But when Jeff Brohm arrived in Louisville, things changed. Brohm, a Louisville native and former Cardinals quarterback, brought with him immediate credibility and a proven history as a winner and quarterbacks coach.
The real story behind Vince Marrow’s move
Marrow has explained that when Brohm became the coach at Louisville, the recruiting war heated up, and Marrow’s got a new battle now. With all the talk about him coming from Kentucky to Louisville, some rumors just wouldn’t die. Some opined he didn’t care for Lexington anymore, others rumored he’d lost his clout in the program, or perhaps he just wanted out. But Marrow, never reluctant to be honest, took the mic and put down the rumors. “People in Lex got to be like, man, either this dude will fall on his head, or somebody’s lying because they know I love Lexington. I’d had major schools come after me, and I didn’t leave. I usually tell people I’m going to retire. I’m going to keep a house still in Lexington because I love the area, no,” Marow said.
]Marrow clarified that he’d spurned offers from big schools for years—even joked about retiring in Lexington. He still intends to maintain a home there because, in his words, “That place is very special to me; there are really good people, great friends.” He signed an extension of his contract with Kentucky, too, and so is now one of the highest-paid assistants in the program.
Why quit now, then? Well, friendship and respect go a long way. He said, “I have a lot of respect for him… I wouldn’t have did it anywhere else. And for the record, I was not kicked out the door at the place up the street.” He added, “It was just a situation to work with a good friend. … (I’ve known) Mark Stoops over 27 years and now another friend (Jeff Brohm) right here over 20 years. I just feel he is the right guy to go work with at this part of my coaching career. I really believe that Jeff really can take this to another level, and I want to be a part of it.” Together, Brohm and Marrow are lining up like a champion duo, ready to outplay the competition.
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