Expect Louisville to come after Kentucky's highest-ranked commit

Mark Stoops (left) and Jarvis Strickland - @coachthomp9

The news that Vince Marrow has left an assistant coaching job at Kentucky for an off-field scouting gig at Louisville caught everyone by surprise on Monday. Most of the immediate reaction went to what the future means with Mark Stoops at Kentucky. Nick Roush and myself touched on all of the issues in this news story that has a lot of layers on KSR’s YouTube Channel.

But the biggest that will play out in real time is what happens on the high school recruiting trail. A unique head-to-head between Kentucky and Louisville could take place for one of the few commitments in Kentucky’s 2026 high school class.

Paducah (Ky.) Tilghman offensive tackle Jarvis Strickland committed to Kentucky on March 30. Vince Marrow led the charge in that recruitment with head coach Mark Stoops and offensive line coach Eric Wolford also making trips to visit Strickland in Western Kentucky during the spring semester. The four-star recruit plays a priority position and is the type of true tackle prospect that UK has struggled to land.

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Expect Louisville to now make a big push for the four-star propsect.

Heading into year three under Jeff Brohm, Louisville finally has some real momentum in high school recruiting. The program appears to be pivoting away from the all-in portal strategy and looking to roster-build in a more traditional way. The Cards are up to 17 high school commits and that would already be the most high school players ever signed under Brohm. Seven of those players are from Kentucky. The Wildcats aggressively pursued Louisville (Ky.) St. Xavier linebacker Karsten Busch and Radcliff (Ky.) North Hardin defensive lineman Josiah Hope before each recruitment ended with a commitment to Louisville. Trotwood (Ohio) Madison defensive tackle Jamarcus Whyce also just pledged to Louisville. That was a prospect that Kentucky has had on their recruiting radar for an extended period.

Louisville was already infringing on Kentucky’s recruiting home territory that had mostly been owned by Marrow over the last five-plus seasons. Expect that to continue. Marrow has played a key role in the Chattanooga-Paducah-Lexington pipeline that first got started when UK landed Martels Carter Jr. in the 2024 cycle. Marrow could be looking to get some of those Chattanooga natives that have moved to Kentucky to call Louisville their college football home.

This new rivalry will first start to play out on the recruiting trail.