Louisville took a giant swing into the guts of its rival program, hiring Kentucky affiliate head coach Vince Marrow as its new normal supervisor for soccer, CBS Sports activities’ Chris Hummer confirms. Marrow has been an on-field place coach at Kentucky since Mark Stoops took over this system in 2013.
Marrow is taken into account one of many premier recruiting assistants in school soccer, and he has a particular connection in his house state of Ohio. Underneath Marrow’s work as recruiting coordinator, Kentucky put collectively basically each one of many prime recruiting lessons in program historical past and produced 4 first-round NFL Draft picks.
His relationship with Stoops extends again to their time as highschool teammates at Cardinal Mooney Excessive Faculty in Youngstown, Ohio. A number of colleges have focused Marrow over time, together with Mel Tucker’s Michigan State and even Invoice Belichick’s North Carolina. Marrow additionally interviewed for teaching jobs at Bowling Inexperienced and Southern Miss. Over time, he has by no means wandered.
Nevertheless, Marrow now leaves for a vital off-field place at a rival program proper because the revenue-sharing period kicks off in school athletics. Marrow signed a $1.3 million contract in September 2024, however Cats Pause 247 studies that he may doubtlessly exceed that mark with incentives at Louisville, a sign of the rising marketplace for personnel staffers.
Louisville has been a resurgent program since former quarterback Jeff Brohm got here again to take over this system. The Cardinals posted a 19-8 document in Brohm’s two seasons, together with a run to the ACC Championship Recreation in 2023. This system will combine USC switch quarterback Miller Moss to the place in 2025 and initiatives among the many prime groups within the ACC. Louisville obliterated Kentucky 41-14 in Marrow’s ultimate sport on the Kentucky sideline final season.
Altering roles
Marrow’s personnel chops have been much-needed for Kentucky as this system underwent a historic interval of success underneath Stoops. In keeping with 247Sports information, Marrow was credited with recruiting 37 four-star prospects, together with among the greatest gamers in fashionable program historical past.
The times of a conventional recruiting coordinator is likely to be coming to an in depth because the revenue-sharing period begins. As a substitute, the final supervisor and their personnel employees are way more prone to exist in an off-field capability to determine and recruit gamers. The overall supervisor should additionally handle wage cap figures.
Beforehand, these roles had been primarily dealt with by Brohm’s chief of employees. Now, Marrow would be the first full-time govt making these choices for the Cardinals.
Cracks within the basis
Stoops has been some of the revered and constant coaches of the twenty first century at Kentucky, main the Wildcats to an unprecedented seven successful seasons in eight years. After the 2023 season, although, Stoops awkwardly tried to go away his job for Texas A&M earlier than getting handed over for Mike Elko; the Wildcats went 4-8 in 2024. The shifts in school soccer over the subsequent 12 months helped clarify why.
Kentucky has all the time been a tough job, however the scenario is teetering on not possible now. A 16-team SEC means way more stacked schedules than ever earlier than, and Kentucky faces its fair proportion of SEC contenders this fall. The brand new revenue-sharing mannequin additionally implies that Kentucky’s athletic division should determine the best way to greatest divvy up {dollars} between soccer and males’s basketball; the soccer staff figures to rank among the many lowest share within the SEC.
Louisville has a few of its personal inquiries to reply as a way to greatest handle funds between soccer and each profitable basketball packages. Nevertheless, Brohm is a star on the best way up. He led Purdue to 17 wins in his ultimate two seasons, posted a 30-10 document at Western Kentucky and now has Louisville within the ACC race. It is laborious to view that is something lower than Marrow tying his profession to Brohm as Kentucky soccer falters.
