Matt Jones details Vince Marrow's departure: "There is no way to spin it, it's a disaster."

KSR’s Matt Jones shared his reaction to Vince Marrow‘s departure in real time, acknowledging the “huge blow” it is for Mark Stoops and the “significant downgrade” it will be for Kentucky football recruiting.

“Throw in the long term friendship between the two men and literally going to coach for UK’s biggest rival and it’s pretty terrible result for Stoops,” he wrote on social media. “Vince has been, and is, longtime friend of mine. I think he has been frustrated for awhile. I am not surprised he is leaving While I am slightly surprised it was the Cards now, I think he was VERY close to going to Louisville a couple of years ago. Something must have happened. …

“Not sure there has ever been an Assistant Coach more loved by the UK fanbase than Vince. That obviously won’t be the case now. Pretty amazing change.”

After the dust settled on the decision, we got further insight on Marrow’s departure in a late-night Twitter Space with Matt, including arguably the main reason he left for Louisville: Eddie Gran’s voice with recruiting had grown louder while his failed to carry the same weight it did when he emerged as one of the top assistants in college football.

KSR’s Nick Roush reported earlier that “Marrow’s first choices were no longer always the program’s first choices.” Matt believes the same.

“I have not talked to Vince, but I do think that sort of final decision making authority on recruiting had been taken away from him and given to Eddie Gran, from what I understand,” he said. “I’m sure that upset him. At the end of the day, if you want to go, you have to go. I will say this to Vince, I think it’s a mistake.

“I think it’s a mistake for how he’ll kind of be remembered at Kentucky. I think while Jeff Brohm’s got a good thing going, it’s a pretty big slap in the face to leave to go to Louisville.”

As for what it means for Mark Stoops, the pressure is now on entering 2025 with the PR hits stacking up.

“There is a sense now where this year is do or die for Stoops,” Matt said. “I think he can’t afford now to not have a good year — even if it’s a mediocre year, it’s going to be hard for people to feel optimistic about the future. I’m going to be interested in the short term, what is Mark going to say? I think he needs to say something soon. I think they’ve actually done a pretty poor job with PR this offseason.

“They’ve made a situation where people were frustrated to apathetic, and I think they’ve made it worse. He’s going to have to say something now. They can’t go into the summer and not address this. Mitch (Barnhart) and Mark are going to have to talk about it.”

At this point, Stoops has no choice but to far exceed expectations in 2025, winning healing all wounds as we move past the worst season since his arrival in 2013. As things stand today, though, it’s bad.

Very, very bad.

“It feels like, to me, a sinking ship. If Mark wins six games this year, it may not matter. If he doesn’t, or even if he wins four or five, I think it’s going to be tough to keep this fanbase. I don’t know. … I’m bummed out. I’m bummed out that he’s not going to be here, but I’m also bummed out because I feel like we’re in kind of a dead man walking situation with UK football unless something changes pretty quick. … There is no way to spin it, it’s a disaster.”

Don’t believe Matt? Maybe you’ll agree with former Kentucky football punting star Max Duffy, who had a similar reaction to the news on the Twitter Space.

“I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it — especially this time of the year” he said. “You can understand the end of the season or something but this time of the year? Something had to have gone down in the last week or two. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, I don’t see what there is to gain for him going at this time. …

“Maybe it’s the fresh start we need, I don’t know. You never know, but I don’t have a whole lot of optimism. We’ll see how it all goes. It seems like everything’s just slowly unraveling, doesn’t it?”

https://t.co/hHN67biAuD

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) June 10, 2025