LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Maybe Vince Marrow is this close to leaving the University of Kentucky to work for Jeff Brohm at Louisville because he's discovered the restaurant scene is nicer in the 502.
Maybe Marrow is excited about the idea of competing in the same conference with Bill Belichick, Bill O'Brien and Frank Reich, former NFL head coaches now working in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Or maybe Marrow is simply ready to leave six months before he's told to leave.
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But here are several sentences that don't require the word maybe until the ink is dry on Marrow's new three-year deal to direct recruiting, the transfer portal and roster management for the Cards.
It's not a good look for Kentucky coach Mark Stoops. It's the the look of Brohm and Louisville overtaking Stoops and Kentucky as the premier football program in the state.
It's not a good look after Stoops and Marrow publicly carried on like besties for their first 12 years together in Lexington.
It's not a good look when one source told me one reason for the delay in making the deal official is Stoops has been out of contact with Marrow, and the assistant was unable to get the news to his boss personally before Pete Thamel of ESPN started the ruckus about it on social media early Monday evening.
For Brohm, this is found gold. Diminish your rival. Enhance yourself. Louisville has already made massive gains in the in-state recruiting world. Marrow should take it up a notch.
For Stoops, this is the last thing he needed. He's already viewed as a coach fighting for his future.
He lost his mojo after the 2021 season, the last time Kentucky won 10 games, and it doesn't appear to be coming back.
The four victories Kentucky posted last season were the fewest since 2013, the first season after the Joker Phillips era. Ditto for the one Southeastern Conference victory.
The preseason magazines and the sharpies in Las Vegas haven't been encouraging about Kentucky.
Athlon Sports college football yearbook slots the Wildcats into 15th place, ahead of Mississippi State but behind Vanderbilt and Arkansas.
Vegas lists Kentucky as a favorite for its season opener against Toledo but by only 11.5 points. The over/under season win total started at a dismal 4.5 last month — and hasn't moved.
At DraftKings, if you bet $100 on Kentucky to win 10 games, you'll make $5,000. A similar bet will return $210 on Louisville, $300 on Indiana and $450 on Western Kentucky. They call that a bad visual.
National championship odds?
Why did you have to ask?
The Wildcats will pay $40,000 on a $100 wager — the same payoff offered to people who bet $100 on UCLA, Syracuse, Michigan State, Minnesota and Tulane.
Did somebody say Tulane?
Surely, that is a coincidence. Las Vegas does not play games with the numbers like that.
Tulane has a different path to the College Football Playoff. The Green Wave have to win the American Athletic Conference, not the Southeastern Conference. As a program living outside the Power 4, Tulane would actually have to win every game, especially non-conference matchups with Northwestern, Duke and Ole Miss.
But that's not what makes Tulane a team to discuss in this space. Any engaged Kentucky fan knows the rest of the Tulane story — and suspects how the Mark Stoops story will end.
If Stoops doesn't win at least seven (or maybe eight) games this season, the dissatisfaction in the UK fan base figures to drive athletic director Mitch Barnhart into swapping Stoops for Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall. Sumrall played linebacker at Kentucky. Sumrall served as a graduate assistant at Kentucky. Sumrall worked with Stoops and Marrow from 2019-21 at Kentucky.
He's won 32 of 41 games in three seasons as a head coach at Troy (two seasons) and Tulane. Several Big 12 programs and North Carolina inquired about Sumrall after the Green Wave finished 9-5 last season.
Not interested.
Even before this news broke Monday night, all signs pointed to Mark Stoops fighting for his future with Kentucky football. Losing Marrow to Brohm and Louisville was the last thing Stoops needed.
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