Vince Marrow opens up before 2024 season
Vince Marrow is the only assistant coach who has been with Mark Stoops for his entire stint in Lexington and he's now got many roles in the program.
In advance of the 2024 season, Marrow went on the "1 Star Recruits" podcast and he had plenty to say.
You can listen to it in full here.
Kentucky's pitch to recruits
The show hosts emphasized Kentucky's recruiting success both at the high school and portal levels. Marrow said the first thing to know is Kentucky has great support available for student-athletes. Mark Stoops is good to work for. Eli Capilouto and Mitch Barnhart are good in leadership. And Kentucky is a great university. Marrow said when he was at Nebraska they were getting kids from Ohio but that was a 14-15 hour drive. When Stoops first got the job, he spoke with Bo Pelini. Marrow said he knew with how close Kentucky was to these cities in Ohio, "We could do some serious damage in Ohio," he said.
The pitch is "easy", Marrow said. The SEC has been the most dominant conference since his son went to Alabama in 2009.
Stoops is going into his 13th year. They've been consistent. Brad White has had the defense rank in the top three in many categories and they have consistency there. The culture is good.
A lot of the players Kentucky gets are from up north, Marrow said. "I consider Kentucky really like Ohio...We want that model to go down and play against those boys in the South."
Marrow said when they first got to UK they might have had a combine player or a draft pick here or there. "That changed when we signed that '14 class with Mike Edwards...Then the next year Josh Allen, CJ Conrad, Jordan Jones..."
Marrow said the whole secondary was at the Senior Bowl that year with Josh Allen and he's very proud of that. Marrow said most people don't realize that Kentucky is one of the winningest programs in the SEC since 2018 with lots of combine participants and draft picks.
Stoops' NIL frustration comes up
Mark Stoops' recent NIL comments were mentioned and Marrow was asked how he approaches the topic with recruits. "It still comes down to relationships...do parents trust you, does the kid trust you?" Marrow said they are competitive in NIL but there are guys on the roster who had more money offered from other schools, but relationships and the situation at UK have kept some there. He said they can always get more money, but he's going to go out and battle. He said it's not as simple as just throwing money at guys. You have to go sit in that living room, meet with the parents, and share your message. There have to be people from the past who offer reference checks. He said people from the past have always gone to bat for Stoops, Marrow, and crew.
How does Kentucky get to the next level?
Marrow said the biggest misconception is Kentucky doesn't get four and five star kids. He talked about the number of four-stars they signed, including one recent year, upwards of seven of the top-15 in Ohio. He mentioned that if Kentucky had beat Texas A&M on the road in 2018, they would have been an 11-win team, and they should have beaten Tennessee that year, too.
He also noted that he wasn't thrilled with how the A&M game played out and seemed to hint that it should have ended differently.
Marrow said they're close but you have to have all the right pieces the same year. In 2022, Marrow said they were No. 17 against No. 12 Ole Miss on the road and they had a chance to win. They called a touchdown back because of a pre-snap penalty. "If we win that game we just up to probably three or four." In the process, Levis got hurt and they lost to South Carolina.
He said in recent bowl games they have played the runner up or third best team in their league while Kentucky was lower in the SEC. "So we're close..."
One area where there are questions
Marrow said Kentucky has a lot of talent and depth across the board this year and it may be the best combination of that the staff has had. He did say the running back room is where there may be some questions/concerns.
However, he also voiced a lot of confidence in Chip Trayanum. UK was up for adding a second portal back this year but that was always in the context of just bringing in another experienced runner.
"We've got to make the plays"
Ultimately, Marrow said Kentucky was a 1-star prestige program when they came in and they're probably 3.5 now, to use a familiar video game program rating system. He said they're trending toward four-star program status, like a recruit who's jockeying for his fourth star going into camps.
He emphasized that it's as simple as UK making plays in individual games they need to win. "When it's 3rd and 5, you gotta make the play."
The question was how close Kentucky is to the top of the mountain. Marrow believes that 9 or 10-wins will be enough for the Cats to get into the playoff.