Does Vince Marrow Add More Juice to the Rivalry Game vs. Louisville?

There’s an added layer to the annual rivalry game between Kentucky and Louisville. A familiar face will be on the other sideline this Saturday. Vince Marrow spent 12 years working alongside Mark Stoops. After throwing Ls Down for more than a decade, he’s wearing red as the Louisville Executive Director of Football Personnel.

Marrow’s abrupt departure in June could be measured on the Richter scale in Kentucky. It’s one thing for a coach to leave a program in the offseason. This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill departure. He’s been a friend of the Stoops family since high school. He wasn’t just Stoops’ right-hand man on the recruiting trail; he was the program’s most outspoken promoter.

Following the move, Stoops and the Kentucky football team played nice in public forums. At SEC Media Days, Stoops said he held no animosity toward Marrow, and the players echoed that sentiment.

That was in July. Now that they’re facing off against one another, have the two shared any words with one another?

“Yeah, we’ve talked,” Stoops said Monday. “(It was) very short, but we had some mutual friends, mutual tragedy, you know what I mean, things of that nature, some personal things; (we spoke) briefly.”

The personal feelings may not add more to the rivalry for the coaches, but what about the players, many of whom were recruited to Kentucky by Marrow?

“I don’t know if you need any truthfully,” said Stoops. “In this situation, it feels like so long ago that there’s a lot that’s transpired between now and then. The game is important, the response is important. There’s a lot of things that are important. That personal touch on it, no. I don’t think there’s anything there.”

The stakes are high enough for Kentucky. The Wildcats’ three-game winning streak came to a streaking halt in a blowout loss at Vanderbilt. They must beat Louisville to earn a bowl bid and ensure the strides they made near the end of the season are not soured. Over the years, Mark Stoops’ teams have rallied to be at their best for the season-ending rivalry.

“We always knew the right buttons to push,” said Stoops. “I think it’s hard throughout a year, you know what I mean. In this game, it’s the last game. You have to empty the tank, right? This is the last game of the year, both teams are hurt, with important players that are down. It’s always the next man up mentality. Both of us have programs and capable players to step in, but both teams are definitely beat up, and you have to respond and give it everything you have here for this last week.”