Marrow Details How Difficult it was to Leave Kentucky

Kentucky fans were shocked when they learned Vince Marrow was leaving Kentucky to take a position as the de facto general manager of the Louisville football program. Pete Thamel’s report sent shockwaves across the state, but it didn’t happen overnight.

Marrow and Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm played together in the XFL. Brohm tried courting Marrow during his time at Purdue, but moving to West Lafayette was off the table. Those conversations started back up when Brohm got back to Louisville, and heated up within the last week.

This time, Marrow obviously seriously considered making the move. He said nothing was official when Thamel’s report interrupted his dinner, and he received a text from Matt Jones. Marrow was upset he didn’t let Stoops know before the news became public.

“That week I was going to talk to Mark. Me and Mark are really good friends. Was it tough? I’m gonna be honest, it was tough. It’s like you being with somebody that long, and I’ve been very close with his family. Our families have been very close for years, and so when that leaked, I kind of wanted to talk to him at camp that Sunday, but then he left town to go to his son’s, graduation party in Denver,” Marrow said on The Deener Show.

“And so we talked, you know, it was some talks. But we actually came to the end of that conversation and he said, ‘You know what, man, I love you. You know you love me. And it’s like, Hey, you’re going to work with a good guy.’ Maybe, it’s like a marriage. Maybe it’s time to go, time to break this up. But, did he want me to leave? No, not at all. But it was a tough conversation.”

That wasn’t the only tough call he had to make.

“I had a lot of relationships in Lexington, starting with, with the Crafts. People talk about them as Joe and Kelly being successful, what they’re worth, and they do a lot of things, but I really became good friends with them. We’re very close, and it was that was a hard call to make. That was a very hard call to make,” Marrow said.

“And then I had a great relationship with our administration. Sitting there and knowing, I mean, I’m at camp Sunday, and I’m knowing that this thing really is going to happen, and I’m with a lot of the coaches on the staff. But the main thing was our administration and just the relationships I had in the community. I had a lot of relationships, and it was very, very difficult.”

Ls Up Felt “Natural” to Vince Marrow

It’s one thing to theoretically talk about making a major career move. It started feeling real for Marrow last week. Once the news became public, it got real, really quick.

Marrow shared the story about the guy who flipped him the bird at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Frankfort. He received a much different reaction in Columbus. Earlier this week, he visited his daughter and son-in-law in Ohio. While staying in a hotel, he unexpectedly ran into a Louisville fan who threw his Ls up and asked for a picture.

“It’s really switched now,” he reminisced.

Deener asked him if it felt weird to put the Ls Up after spending years throwing Ls Down. “It was natural.”

As difficult as the decision may have been, it was one he could not turn down. “It was a situation where I wanted to come and work for a good friend, be on the same page in recruiting, and then go try to win a National Championship.”

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