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  • Relationships kept Marrow at Kentucky

    By LARRY VAUGHT

    LEXINGTON — Leaving Kentucky to work at Michigan was “tempting” to recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow before he decided to accept a contract extension and stay with the Wildcats rather than be part of coach Jim Harbaugh’s new staff at Michigan.

    “It was just my relationship here with the administration and our staff and even the kids that I have coming in this year and the kids that I have recruited the last two years played a big part of that,” said Marrow, who also coaches tight ends at UK. “Really, like I tell parents, it was basically the community.

    “The last three days I couldn’t really go anywhere without people saying things to me. We were in church and the guy doing the offering said something, that is how deep it got. Relationships played a big part to just be honest with you guys.”

    Marrow said because of the friends and relationships he has built the last two years at UK, it would have been a “stressful situation” if he did leave.

    “Now, coach (Mark) Stoops is a great leader and the (recruiting) class wasn’t going to fall apart, but I sure didn’t want to be a part of that (if it did happen). People were saying it was going to be devastation and all that, I don’t know that,” Marrow said Wednesday. “It did weigh on me. It is a situation that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

    “Probably Saturday and Sunday and I didn’t get sleep, but I knew in my heart where I made my decision to go. It was mainly appreciative of the people in the community here that reached out to me. I am on Twitter because I recruit on Twitter, but there were a lot of responses from people in the community that was hoping I would stay.”

    That’s because Marrow has combined with Stoops, both Ohio natives, to get 21 commitments from Ohio in the last three recruiting classes and could still add more in the 2015 class. Plus, transfers Braylon Heard, Greg Hart and Courtney Love are all Ohio natives.

    “It had to be important because some other schools wanted that part of Ohio, too. Ohio signs about 147-150 division I guys a year. We have been signing anywhere from eight of the top 20 or we have been way up and ESPN has noticed it and other major networks noticed the damage that we are doing in Ohio,” Marrow said.

    “It is always going to be a major part. Just keeping that foothold there. I think I heard people say Michigan is going to hurt us in recruiting in Ohio, we live for the battles for that. I think we are going to do fine in Ohio still.”

    Marrow hopes his staying at Kentucky will say “volumes” to recruits about his commitment to the UK program.

    “I know that a lot of our recruits were very fired up because for some reason they just assumed I was gone. I told people that it wasn’t a slam dunk and a lot of people were saying that it was a slam dunk I was going,” Marrow said. “Yes, it shows that our athletics director Mitch (Barnhart), the route he is going, our administration and it shows were the program is going and I believe in that wholeheartedly.

    “You look at the stadium renovations and just at the type of support that we have been getting over the last two years here. That always plays a big part in it.”

    Marrow predicted that Kentucky would “finish strong” with this year’s recruiting class. One of the top targets, Madison Southern running back Damien Harris, will pick either Alabama, Ohio State or UK on Friday.

    “We have a couple more slots that we have to fill and it is just a situation where I know with me staying here a lot of those guys were very fired up to see that. We will see where we are going to finish, but I feel pretty good about it though. It is going to be pretty good,” Marrow said.

    He admitted the staff had been selling hope from the day it arrived after a 2-10 UK season and firing of then coach Joker Phillips.

    “I think people thought that I was joking around when I made the statement that we would do better in the 2014 class because when we caught people off guard in that 2013 class a lot of schools started to negative recruit us,” Marrow said. “Then we turned around and signed the 2014 class, which was a very strong class and we kept it together from the beginning to the end.

    “Now coming down to 2015 we have a couple of guys that are coming in early that are some really good players. We are coming down to the end where the process now is look at our rebuilding, we went 2-10 to 5-7 and could have easily been in a bowl game this year. It is just like when you are building any other program you see the progress and I think the parents and kids see that progress and we are looking really good for 2015.”
    Comments 1 Comment
    1. JimHarris's Avatar
      JimHarris -
      Is this to suggest that Michigan offered him $375K or more as a recruiter/position coach? Or did Relationships--and $$$--keep him at UK? I'm quite pleased to see that UK is willing to put out big bucks in an effort to keep the program moving toward success. But looking at our schedule, it's hard to see where 2 or 3 more wins will come from in 2015. The program desperately needs them though.

      I'd really really really like to know what Larry thinks Barker's odds of taking over the program next season. IMO if he's not our best hope, I don't know what might be. Think I just need an uplift this evening. ;-))
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