Louisville football GM Vince Marrow 'on a mission' to help Cardinals reach new heights

Vince Marrow lifted his right hand, pointed his index and middle fingers to the sky and his thumb to the left, grinning proudly.

“So you see,” Marrow said, “I can do this very good now. When I first really knew I was gonna take the job, my boy’s like, ‘Man, you gotta learn to do the L's (up).’”

Thought to have been created by Louisville men’s basketball’s 1988 signing class and later popularized by the school itself in the early 2000s, “L’s up” is the Cardinal fanbase’s signature hand gesture. It’s on T-shirts and posters and foam fingers. It’s every coach, player and fan’s go-to picture pose.

But after 12 years in Lexington, Marrow struggled to get his hand to move that way.

“This finger,” he said, pointing toward the one in the middle, “would not go up, because it was used to doing the other thing.”

He chuckled, reveling in the joke for a moment before further clarifying: “It also was an injury.”

After a decade of helping revive Kentucky football, Marrow left this summer to become Louisville’s first general manager. As seismic of a change this move was to many in college football, Marrow has adjusted quickly. He mastered the L’s up hand gesture, traded in his Nikes for Adidas kicks and became a frequent patron — alongside prospective donors — of Louisville’s most renowned steakhouses (Jeff Ruby’s, Malone’s, Connors).

Next on the list: An ACC championship and a College Football Playoff berth.

From Lexington to Louisville

Marrow was sitting in a Lexington restaurant on a Monday with his accountant when he got a text from his wife.

“Are you still with Coach?” she asked.

“Yes,” the accountant replied.

“Y’all need to look at your phones right now,” she said.

Rumors had been swirling locally about Marrow’s departure for UK’s archrival, and ESPN’s Pete Thamel broke the news — news that, Marrow said, wasn’t supposed to come out until Friday. He hadn’t been able to speak with head coach Mark Stoops yet. 

“When I read that piece,” Marrow said, “I was like, ‘Oh, this cat must be sitting in my damn pocket.’”

The initial response to “when did discussions with Louisville start?” had been about two to three weeks before his announcement June 12. But Marrow told The Courier Journal it was longer than that. Since coach Jeff Brohm took over the program in 2022, Marrow had visions of himself in Louisville, reunited with his longtime friend and doing damage in the ACC.

After Louisville, in Marrow’s words, "embarrassed" Kentucky 41-14 in Lexington last year, he went on Ky Sports Radio with Matt Jones. Jones' final question for Marrow: “Can you tell the fans that you will be in Lexington in 2025?”

Marrow paused for about 10-12 seconds before answering, “Yeah.” That hefty pause comes across pretty suspicious in hindsight.

He described his mindset as “50-50.” Then a family vote with his wife Renee and their seven combined children (Aryanna Marrow, Mike Marrow, Phylicia Marrow, Victoria Marrow Oliver, Devon Daniel, Robbie Lofton and Alexandra Smith) came back unanimous in favor of Louisville. Finally, Marrow asked God for a sign, which he declined to share but swears happened. Alrighty then, Marrow thought, onward and upward.

Marrow and Brohm have been friends since their XFL playing days with the Orlando Rage. Brohm tried to persuade his old teammate to join him at Purdue, but Marrow had no desire to live in West Lafayette, Indiana. And he didn’t want to leave Kentucky.

Athletics director Josh Heird told The Courier Journal that he looked at Marrow’s hiring as an opportunity for Brohm to get “one of the best recruiters in the country.” For Marrow, it was as ideal a situation as he could ask for. Join his friend at an up-and-coming ACC program, stay in the Bluegrass State and dive further into the most compelling parts of college football today — the business side.

“I really feel what's going on with college football, the executive GM role is just like when you got the head coach and execs on the side building an NFL team together. I couldn't pass it up.”

Marrow had been approached by at least eight schools while at Kentucky. He turned down two head coaching jobs as his responsibilities at UK grew, from tight ends coach to recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and NFL liaison. And the university invested in him, most recently granting a $1.3 million a year extension through June 2027.

But the opportunity to combine Brohm’s coaching ability with Marrow’s recruiting prowess, charisma and uncanny ability to hobnob with deep pocketed donors as well as ground level fans, proved irresistible. “I’m on a mission,” Marrow said. “I’m on a mission to get this team to the playoffs.”

After taking the job, Marrow saw a new narrative swirl among Kentucky football circles. KSR’s Nick Roush, for example, wrote in June: “Similar to Game of Thrones, Marrow was once the wise Hand of the King that guided Stoops to his most prosperous years as the king of Kentucky football. In recent years, Marrow lost his influence as other coaches curried favor with Stoops.” Marrow didn’t appreciate the characterization as his move being one fueled by the revocation of power.

“I know sometimes you gotta spin a narrative to do damage control, but that kind of pissed me off. I'm like, ‘So you really gonna try to spin this?’ But guess what? It's like when you're running for office. The American people are smart. Kentucky football fans were smart.

“... Just read between the lines, man.”

'Still the same O.G.'

Marrow didn’t respond to “a lot of stuff” hurled his way after the move to Louisville became official. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t see or remember what was said.

After flipping defensive lineman Josiah Hope (the No. 1 2026 prospect in the state of Kentucky, per ESPN’s rankings) from Purdue in July, Marrow posted a snippet to X from the song “Forgot About Dre” by Dr. Dre featuring Eminem: 

“Y’all know me, still the same O.G. But I been low-key. Hated on…”

let’s go pic.twitter.com/oONRto8JxX

— CoachMarrow (@vincemarrow) July 24, 2025

When he got Louisville a commitment from Julius Miles, the No. 1 tight end in Florida, Marrow posted a BigXthaPlug snippet:

“Safe to say I’m the biggest, the largest” — a clear allusion to Marrow’s longtime nickname “Big Dawg” — “Been steppin' on shit since my mama stayed in them apartments.”

Let’s go. pic.twitter.com/9PKaEPl6G8

— CoachMarrow (@vincemarrow) July 7, 2025

It’s all fun and games, truly, Marrow said. He still has love for UK. Always will. He spent 12 years of his life there, helping build the program from a bottom dweller of the SEC to a run of nine straight bowl games. 

Marrow thinks of the whole situation like a marriage:

“You get divorced and they say, ‘Do you hate that person?’" he said. "You had a relationship for 12 years. You’re still going to care about them. With the Kentucky fans, it’s like, (I) got divorced, found this new, badass wife, and I’m moving forward and I’m happy.”

He took the analogy further: “I had a really good lawyer. No child support, no alimony.”

This, of course, is in reference to the fact that Marrow did not owe Kentucky a buyout upon leaving. His contract with UK stipulated that he would have to pay $200,000 per year of the remaining compensation on his contract should he leave for another coaching position. The GM job, he said, didn’t count.

Marrow’s deal with Louisville, obtained by The Courier Journal via a public records request, runs from June 16 of this year to June 30, 2028. His base salary for Year 1 (June 16 to June 30, 2026) is $700,000; for Year 2 (July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027) $800,000; and for Year 3 (July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2028) $900,000. Marrow's contract also stipulates that he "is entitled to receive additional compensation from private entities outside the University." That outside income will come from one entity (which Marrow declined to name) and make for an annual financial package totaling more than $1 million.

What it means to be a GM

Marrow’s official title at U of L is “Executive Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting.” He’s in charge of roster management, scouting high school and transfer portal prospects, meeting with donors and helping manage Louisville football’s revenue-sharing fund.

Essentially, Marrow is operating with an NFL mindset. He sits in on practices, position group meetings and film sessions to evaluate the whole of Louisville football. Marrow identifies key players the coaching staff will want to hold onto and weak spots they’ll need to supplement through the portal and/or high school ranks. Then he goes out and researches what — or more accurately how much — it’ll take money-wise to make those things happen.

Heird and football administrator Michael Dudas tell Brohm & Co. how much revenue-sharing money they have to work with. Brohm ultimately makes every decision about how much to offer each recruit. But he relies heavily on Marrow’s insight. 

Marrow puts budgets together based on what Louisville has to work with and the “market value” of each position. He then suggests caps based on this budget and U of L’s most pressing needs. 

Marrow did not share specific numbers for the 2025 or 2026 seasons, but he used the following as a hypothetical example: Louisville has $1.5 million to spend on four wide receivers. In an ideal world, that would mean about $375,000 per receiver. But there’s one four- or five-star receiver out there that’s really caught U of L’s attention and is asking for $700,000. In that case, Marrow would have to make some decisions.

• Go to Brohm and insist that this player is worth $700,000, so Louisville must find a way to pay him accordingly. That means either stomaching that they’d only have $800,000 left to spend on three additional receivers, taking some extra money from another position group’s revenue-sharing fund, or working with Dan Furman at 502Circle to set up a third-party NIL deal to bump the player’s total compensation to his overall asking price.
• Or spend the $700,000 on one receiver, add a couple more with the remaining $800,000, and slot in a tight end to make up for the last receiver spot.
• Or, wish that player the best and let somebody else “overspend.”

The chain of command basically goes like this, Marrow said: Heird and Dudas hand down the budget; Marrow does research with the help of Pete Nochta (director of recruiting) and Jeff Brohm’s son Brady Brohm, who Marrow describes as his protege of sorts; Marrow goes to Jeff Brohm with an evaluation and a number; and then Brohm gives his blessing.

Here’s an NFL comparison: Marrow is the GM. Nochta is the director of player personnel. Brady Brohm and other young guys who watch tape are scouts.

And, just like in the NFL, Marrow said Louisville has already dealt with a player who wanted to hold out for more money. He declined to name the player, but stressed the importance of relationship building in those moments, despite the fact that most on the periphery of college sports believe money is the end all, be all.

“If your relationship was good with that player,” Marrow said, “maybe he's gonna say, I wasn’t gonna practice until my contract gets done, but, you know what, because I got a good relationship with this guy, I trust him that this is gonna get done.’”

Marrow prides himself on being authentic. “You ain’t gonna get no political stuff out of me,” he said. “You’re gonna get real, to-the-core stuff.” That’s the case with members of the media, fellow coaches and recruits. If you’re his “No. 1 guy,” you’ll know it. And if you’re not, he’ll tell you straight up.

His mince-free message for recruits: Louisville is on its way. Clemson, Florida State, they had their time. 

“We’re gonna be the new.”

Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at [email protected], and follow her on X @petitus25.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Vince Marrow: Louisville football GM on job, leaving Kentucky Wildcats