Could Vince Marrow replace Liam Coen as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator?
It seems like it was just yesterday that Kentucky was looking for an offensive coordinator. In a sense, it was.
Liam Coen left the Los Angeles Rams’ coaching staff to join UK’s about this time last year after getting officially announced as the Cats’ next OC in December, a couple weeks prior to the Wildcats’ game against North Carolina State in the 2020 Gator Bowl. It became evident early in Coen’s time leading the offense that his stay in Lexington would likely be short, but predicting that he’d only be in town for a single campaign was hazardous. His exit isn’t officially official, but it’s all but.
It’s hard to fault Coen teaming back up with his former boss and team; being the Rams’ offensive coordinator, at this point, is functionally an internship with the promise of an NFL head coaching job at the end of it. Working from the assumption that Mark Stoops would like to continue running the same offense at UK that helped it engineer a 10-3 season last year, here are some names to watch as the Wildcats seek a new offensive coordinator.
Vince Marrow
Current job: UK associate head coach/recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach.
Rationale: Shocked? Don’t be. Marrow has been a fixture as much as anyone in the UK renaissance, is its recruiting maestro and has the ear of every NFL franchise. He’s also technically 1-0 as UK’s offensive coordinator — he called plays in lieu of Eddie Gran in that Gator Bowl victory — and has on at least one occasion been courted to be a head coach. The former Buffalo Bills tight end has nearly two decades worth of coaching experience under his belt and was up-close-and-personal with UK’s new-look offense last year. Kentucky in this scenario would need to hire a dedicated quarterbacks coach, preferably one with high-level college or NFL experience, to pair with the “Big Dog.”
Scott Woodward
Current job: UK wide receivers coach.
Rationale: I suspect that, even if “Woody” isn’t named offensive coordinator, Kentucky will likely try to retain him as part of its staff. Seeing as he’s a close friend of Coen, that might be difficult, depending on if there’s a job waiting for him in Los Angeles, but his role in the development of UK’s receiving corps last year was undersold. Becoming an SEC offensive coordinator just six years after being a graduate assistant would be quite a rapid rise, but the football world as of late has been more open than ever to eschewing experience for gifted youth.
Dan Mullen
Current job: Unemployed.
Rationale: Mullen has spent two decades in the SEC, serving as Florida’s OC and quarterbacks coach from 2005-2008 before two head coaching stops: Mississippi State (2009-2017) and Florida (2018-2021). His tenure with the Gators was ultimately doomed by two factors: program-wide recruiting misfires and his attachment to defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, whom he fired midway through last season before he himself was let go. At Kentucky in 2022, Mullen’s responsibilities would be more focused. Among them: prepare Will Levis for the NFL in a manner that he did for Alex Smith (while QBs coach at Utah), Dak Prescott and Kyle Trask.
Troy Walters
Current job: Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers coach.
Rationale: If the hire doesn’t come from within UK’s locker room, it makes the most sense that Stoops would look to the NFL for his next offensive coordinator, and the Super Bowl runners-up boast a couple of potential candidates. Walters, the Bengals’ lead wide receivers coach, boasts OC experience (Nebraska, Central Florida, Indiana State) but doesn’t have the specific QBs experience that might be sought with this hire. Brad Kragthorpe, the son of former Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe, has spent three years in Cincinnati, the first two as an assistant quarterbacks coach and last year as an assistant wide receivers coach; those were the same titles Liam Coen once held with the Rams. He played at LSU and was an assistant during the Tigers’ 15-0 run to the title with current Bengals Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase leading the way. He’s demonstrated success at coaching marquee talent but, like Woodward, has never called plays for an offense at any level. Bengals quarterbacks coach Dan Pitcher is more experienced than Kragthorpe but has the same rub when it comes to play-calling experience.
Rob Calabrese
Current job: New York Jets quarterbacks coach.
Rationale: The former Central Florida quarterback is the youngest on this list — he’ll turn 32 in March — but has two years of offensive coordinator experience under his belt (at Wagner, an FCS school, in 2017 and 2018). He’s spent the last three years in the NFL, the first two as an offensive quality control assistant with the Denver Broncos. He’s worked with new Kentucky offensive line coach Zach Yenser and would be a natural fit with the Cats’ current offense. Recruiting ability probably would be the biggest question mark with him; he spent only five years in the college ranks, and that includes two years while he was a graduate assistant at UCF.
Bush Hamdan
Current job: Missouri quarterbacks coach.
Rationale: A former offensive coordinator at Davidson (2014) who also boasts NFL experience (Atlanta Falcons, 2017), Hamdan has spent most of his career coaching in the Power Five ranks and has been with the Tigers the last two years. The 36-year-old doesn’t boast a direct connection to Stoops and company, but his name came up during the last search for an offensive coordinator, so it bears mentioning here, too. Over the last two years, he coached Connor Bazelak, a one-time UK recruit who completed 65.2 percent of his passes last season for 2,540 yards and 16 touchdowns but also threw 11 interceptions.
Tim Beck
Current job: North Carolina State offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
Rationale: Beck, like Stoops and Marrow, is a graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown, Ohio, and has three decades of coaching experience, including stints at Power Five programs for the better part of the last two. After a lackluster year in 2020, his first with the Wolfpack, they finished 29th in scoring (33.1 ppg) and 19th in passing (288.4 ypg), both ahead of Kentucky in 2021.
Tee Martin
Current job: Baltimore Ravens wide receivers coach.
Rationale: Martin, who for two seasons (2010-2011) was on Kentucky’s staff under Joker Phillips, has been an offensive coordinator for a Power Five school (USC) and interviewed for the Buffalo Bills’ OC vacancy this offseason. He was at Tennessee for two years before landing the Ravens job last year. There isn’t a direct connection between he and Stoops, but if he’s interested, the Mobile, Ala., native would be worth interviewing. In his final season at Tennessee, Martin was regarded as a top-80 recruiter in the nation by 247Sports.
Derrick Nix
Current job: Ole Miss assistant head coach/wide receivers coach.
Rationale: Nix has been at Ole Miss for more than a decade, most of that time spent as its running backs coach. He’s regarded as a great recruiter and while there’s not a direct connection to Stoops, his wife, Allison, was a basketball star at Franklin County High School. If he’s looking to be a play-caller, there’s a lot to like about Kentucky.
Brian Brohm
Current job: Purdue co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
Rationale: Is it really a Kentucky football coaching search if a Brohm isn’t brought up?
Not happening: Eddie Gran
Current job: UK special assistant to the head coach.
Rationale: Gran is still getting paid like an offensive coordinator by UK and spent most of the last year studying offenses, including the one Kentucky operated. Fans seemed to have no problem with Gran as a person, so perhaps round two would be a perfect marriage if he’s running something akin to what the Cats did last year? Anyone hoping for a return should temper expectations. “That ain’t happening,” Gran told the Herald-Leader.
