Vince Marrow echoes Rick Pitino in using love for Kentucky to justify move to Louisville

Vince Marrow’s move to Louisville is the biggest heel turn in Kentucky sports since Rick Pitino took the job as the head coach of the Cardinals back in 2001. The circumstances are slightly different — Marrow is going directly from Lexington to Louisville, whereas Pitino accepted the job after a three-year stint in the NBA — but there is a common refrain. Both coaches cited their love for the state of Kentucky as part of their reasons for taking jobs with the Wildcats’ archrival.

“I am incredibly excited to work with Jeff Brohm and the University of Louisville football program!” Marrow said in a statement this morning. “Jeff and I have known each other for over 25 years. I have always admired and respected him and the Brohm family. I also love the state of Kentucky; this has become my home. The opportunity to take on this new and exciting role, in the state where I have so many incredible relationships, was something that I couldn’t pass up.”

“The reason I’m here is because of my love for Kentucky,” Pitino said when he accepted the Louisville job in 2001. “It just so happens that a premier university with a premier basketball program has a job that hasn’t been open in 30 years and it just so happened to open right now.”

In fact, had Pitino’s wife Joanne not reminded him how much he loves the state of Kentucky, he said he would have taken the job at Michigan instead.

“She said, ‘I think you love the state of Kentucky, you love the people you met at UofL. I think you should go back to the place you love.”

At the time, Pitino, who left Kentucky on an incredible high and was worshipped by BBN, admitted that his biggest reservation about taking the Louisville job was backlash from Kentucky fans. He said he hoped Kentucky fans would be able to get past that, given how he took the program back to national prominence. Ever since, he has said that one of his biggest regrets was leaving Kentucky in the first place, to take the job with the Boston Celtics in 1997.

“When I took over (Kentucky), everyone was embarrassed,” Pitino said in 2001. “It had to be built back up with integrity. When I left, it was not only built up, but it was a model program. One game a year, we’ll get it on. Outside of that, I’ll always root for them.”

In his official statement, Marrow thanked Kentucky fans for their support and said he hopes to preserve the many friendships he’s made along the way.

“I also want to thank the University of Kentucky, Mark Stoops, the administration, and the fans,” Marrow said. “I have made lifelong friendships during my time at UK, and I have every desire to keep those relationships. That is one of the reasons I wanted to stay in this state. My hope is that I left the Kentucky football program in a better position than when we started. I will always be grateful for my time there.”

I have a feeling that Marrow, like Pitino, may be waiting a while to feel BBN’s embrace again. That process took over two decades for Pitino, who coached Louisville for 16 seasons and memorably flipped the Rupp Arena crowd off after another loss to the Cats. The Pitino-BBN reunion may not have happened at all if not for Mark Pope, Pitino’s former team captain, who made bringing his old coach back in the fold one of his missions after taking the job in 2024. When Pitino walked out onto the floor at Rupp at the end of Big Blue Madness last October, fans gave him a standing ovation. Will that scenario ever play out at Kroger Field for Marrow, as beloved an assistant coach as UK has ever seen?

Right now, it’s hard to imagine, but if you asked a teenage Tyler in 2001 if Pitino would ever be welcomed back in Rupp Arena, I would have said only on a cold day in hell.