After weeklong courtship, UK’s Vince Marrow turns down Michigan State
Another football program flirted all week with Vince Marrow, but he denied its hand on Valentine’s Day.
Marrow, the University of Kentucky football team’s associate head coach, recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach, turned down an offer to serve in a similar role at Michigan State on Friday. It was the second time in as many weeks publicly spurned another program in pursuit of his services.
He wrote on Twitter at 5:46 p.m.:
“#BBN, I’m staying home! Thank you for all of the love and support. Wow! You people are crazy. [blue heart emoji] A big thanks goes to @UKCoachStoops, @UKMitchBarnhart, @UKYpres and @Marcus_D_Hill. This is a special place and we have #UnfinishedBusiness. Let’s go!”
A spokesperson for UK confirmed to the Herald-Leader that Marrow has signed a new contract with the university, the details of which will be made available next week.
Michigan State this week hired Mel Tucker to succeed Mark Dantonio as its head coach. Tucker last season went 5-7 as the head coach at Colorado, his first year with the Buffaloes. Tucker was the defensive coordinator at Georgia from 2016-18 after a one-year stop at Alabama; before his season with the Crimson Tide he’d coached in the NFL for more than a decade.
Marrow’s name last month was linked to the head coaching vacancy at Youngstown State. He reportedly had conversations with YSU but decided against that opportunity in favor of staying at Kentucky, where he has been on Mark Stoops’ staff since the UK head coach was hired in 2013.
Marrow agreed to a new contract last January and was was set to earn $600,000 from Jan. 7, 2019, through June 30 of this year, and is set to receive annual raises of $25,000 in each of the next two seasons under those terms. According to USA Today’s database, he was the 95th-highest paid assistant coach in college football during the 2019 season among more than 1,000 whose salaries are publicly available. Specific figures weren’t reported but there was speculation that Michigan State was willing to offer Marrow an salary that would have approached a seven-digit total.
UK’s recruiting class in 2012 — the last under head coach Joker Phillips — ranked 50th in the country, according to both 247Sports and Rivals. Under Stoops and Marrow, the lowest-ranked class Kentucky has signed was in 2015 (38th by 247Sports), and each of the Wildcats’ last five signing classes were ranked in the top 30 by at least one of the two services. The 2020 class, considered by some to be the best in UK history, is currently ranked 22nd by Rivals and 23rd by 247Sports.
Marrow has coached tight ends for the entirety of his tenure in Lexington, and also holds the title of NFL liaison. Before coming to UK he was a graduate assistant and tight ends coach at Nebraska for two seasons. He coached tight ends at Toledo in 2008, a stint sandwiched between a couple jobs with pro franchises in NFL Europe and a one-year stop as head coach at Holland High School in Springfield, Ohio.
The Buffalo Bills drafted Marrow out of Toledo in the 11th round of the 1992 NFL Draft. He spent parts of eight seasons with the Bills, Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers.
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 5:49 PM.
