LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The title sounds bureaucratic — Executive Director of Player Personnel and Scouting. But Vince Marrow is anything but faceless. And when it comes to his new role with Louisville football, he's not improvising.
What kind of mark he can make at Louisville is hard to project, because he's stepping into a role — and a system — with no real college football playbook.
But he does have a blueprint — one that doesn't come from Tuscaloosa or Columbus, but from the front offices of the NFL.
"I was saying for the last couple years — football's going more like the pro level," Marrow said. "You still got the school part. But now, you need a pro personnel department. A scouting department. People to assist the coaches."
As NFL liaison at Kentucky, Marrow saw how franchises worked: scouting beyond film, digging into background, locker room dynamics, coach relationships. NFL teams would visit once. Then again. And again.
"They'd come in three times," he said. "Just getting information. Getting information."
That level of vetting doesn't exist in college football — not anymore. Not with portal windows closing in weeks. Not with high school recruits negotiating six-figure deals. Not with playoff hopes depending on who signs before December.
"You don't have time to really find out what's behind these guys," Marrow said. "And I just said, you know what? I'm really good at this. … And now I can spend all my time doing it."
So that's what he'll do. No more position room. No tight end drills. Just evaluation. Relationship-building. Fit-finding. And flag-raising.
"It makes us better," he said. "It makes the whole team better."
That's the bet Jeff Brohm has made.
"Every year we look at, how can we improve our football team?" Brohm said. "How can we get better?"
And one of the biggest ways? Talent. The right kind of talent. And in that department, Brohm kept thinking of Marrow.
"That's definitely a strength of Coach Marrow — something he's a natural at," Brohm said. "I've seen him from afar. I've seen him up close. I've been around him. I know how talented he is at what he does."
Still, Louisville isn't going to win every recruiting battle with money. Brohm and Marrow know that. Somebody else will always have a bigger checkbook. But Marrow believes Louisville can offer something just as valuable — development, vision and trust.
"Coach Brohm's track record speaks for him," Marrow said. "To me, he's really easy to recruit for. When I want to go get a top offensive skill player, I can say, 'Hey, you want to go play for this guy.' I'll be smiling — because I know it's going to be a good sale. That's all I'm saying. It's just facts."
And as for Marrow himself? Let's just say confidence was part of the deal.
"If you know anything about me — it don't matter if my mother is over there recruiting, I'm going to try to beat the crap out of you," he said. "It can be Kentucky, it can be Michigan, it can be Miami. I don't care. You better be ready and prepared to deal with us now here at Louisville. Because I really believe we're going to take this to another level."
The states haven't changed. The stakes have.
Marrow's recruiting map has always centered on a six-hour radius — Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania — loaded with Power 5 talent and dotted with coaches who know his number. He's not just a name. He's a known quantity.
It's not a new idea. Howard Schnellenberger built Louisville's first football resurgence on the same six-hour radius. Throw in a pipeline to South Florida — another Louisville staple — and the foundation for a nationally relevant program is in place.
"People may think it's all about money, but it's still about relationships," Marrow said. "You've got to have great relationships. And I feel that I've built a lot of them over the years."
The pitch has changed colors. The process hasn't.
That's what Brohm bought — not just a recruiter, but one with roots. And if he happened to pull the rug out from under a rival, all the better. As of now, following recent decommitments, Kentucky has no committed players from Ohio or Kentucky. That won't last. But it says something.
The portal will keep spinning. The NIL arms race isn't slowing down. But for a program like Louisville, the foundation still starts with trust — with high school coaches, with families, with players. And Marrow knows how to build that.
"You better take this team really serious," he said.
It's a new challenge. But he's not starting from scratch.
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