How Kentucky football could go about filling Vince Marrow’s multiple roles
If Kentucky is to bounce back from its worst football season since Mark Stoops’ first year in charge of the program, the Wildcats will need to do so without Vince Marrow’s help, according to an ESPN report Monday.
Marrow, UK’s associate head coach, recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach, is likely leaving the program for a job at archrival Louisville, according ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The Herald-Leader had been informed of the negotiations but has not yet confirmed the deal is complete.
Marrow’s departure will certainly raise more questions about Stoops’ long term future at Kentucky given their relationship, but the results this fall will probably say much more about Stoops’ future than this decision. Kentucky is coming off a 4-8 season in 2024.
Often credited with being a key figure in Stoops’ success at Kentucky, which included a streak of eight consecutive bowl game appearances, Marrow fulfilled numerous roles through the years.
So how might Stoops go about distributing those departing duties?
There is at least one obvious external candidate to replace Marrow as tight ends coach.
Former Wildcats tight end C.J. Conrad, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at UK, is entering his second year as tight ends coach at Kent State after one year as tight ends coach at Eastern Kentucky. Conrad was viewed as a future coaching star by former UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen, now the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, while he was in Lexington.
If the timing is not right to bring Conrad back to Lexington, there are options already on the staff who could be moved into the role.
Longtime UK support staffer Josh Estes-Waugh already works with the position as assistant tight ends coach. Senior offensive assistant Derek Shay coached tight ends at Marshall in 2023 and worked with the tight ends as a graduate assistant at LSU from 2020-22. Shay has history with UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan from their time together at Missouri. Former UK quarterback Mike Hartline, who was hired as a quality control coach by his alma mater in February, has not coached tight ends previously but did coach receivers at Charlotte in 2023.
Replacing Marrow as a recruiter is a more difficult proposition.
The hope for Kentucky is the philosophical changes that appear to have paved the way for Marrow’s exit will lead to better recruiting results that are less dependent on one coach. The concern is that Marrow’s best recruiting work came in Ohio and Kentucky, where the Wildcats appear to have little traction with the 2026 high school class right now.
Offensive line coach Eric Wolford, a Youngstown, Ohio native like Stoops and Marrow, was recently awarded a one-year contract extension despite a disappointing season from his position in 2024. That extension, which came with a $100,000 raise, is almost certainly a reflection of the value Stoops has placed on Wolford as a recruiter after he rebuilt the offensive line through the transfer portal over the offseason. Wolford is the most obvious candidate to take on the bulk of Marrow’s recruiting work in Ohio, but safeties coach Frank Buffano and inside linebackers coach Mike Stoops also hail from Youngstown.
This story was originally published June 9, 2025 at 6:18 PM.