by LARRY VAUGHT
Vince Marrow is obviously more than just a little biased when it comes to Mark Stoops, the man he came to Kentucky to work for as soon as Stoops became UK’s head coach.
“I don’t think any other coach with so many challenges could have done what Mark Stoops has done here,” said Marrow. “The key was us going into Ohio and getting those guys (recruits), four-star guys. Maybe Benny (Snell) was only a three-star but he was really, really good. Ohio produces a lot of college and NFL players and we had to get in there with our ties to that state.”
The Kentucky recruiting coordinator says the UK administration deserves credit for giving Stoops time to build the program the way he wanted.
“I think they could see where it was going. A lot of big-time coaches would have failed here because they would not have had the blueprint to change this like we did,” Marrow said.
“At first we had some top recruits but not the overall bodies to compete. Once we started building depth, we took off. It still comes down to recruiting even now. You can go into different states to recruit and have NIL (name, image and likeness) but you still have to be a good recruiter.”
Marrow said recruiting moved to a different level when Stoops brought in Liam Coen as offensive coordinator last year and recruits could see not only that receiver Wan’Dale Robinson had a huge year but Kentucky running backs and offensive linemen were still effective.
“It’s kind of like Cal (John Calipari) recruiting players to get them ready for the NBA,” Marrow said. “Now we have an offense geared to get players to the NFL and that won’t change with (new offensive coordinator) Rich (Scangarello).”