Mark Stoops Spoke to Harbaugh Directly re: Marrow
There is a nice story here on what went down re: Vince Marrow this weekend.
I realize most here are dismissive of Kentucky and Mark Stoops in football but it's a massive overhaul situation not unlike what Jim faced @ Stanford and the records of Stoops and Harbaugh are not dissimilar the first 2 years. Takes 3-4 years to really clean up that sort of mess and if you look through the depth chart of UK it's loaded with FR and SO, esp on offense. They are now recruiting like a Tennessee level program (top 20 classes) and are in a weaker SEC East (insert joke about weak SEC West here) so I would not be surprised to see UK as a surprise top 25 team in the next 1-2 seasons. At which point Stoops probably goes off to the next major blueblood program that has a coaching opening - and Marrow goes with him. Or he could turn into the next Butch Jones of course and flatline at UK, but its far too soon to tell. [Did a CC diary on Stoops back in October if you need some bathroom reading material]
Anyhow long story short - Stoops spoke with Harbaugh to confirm the legit interest and UK did what they needed to do. Marrow was already making $275K which is pretty hefty for a position coach (that's at the high end of what programs like MSU and Iowa pay position coaches) and got a "substantial" raise. Unlike all the other guys Harbaugh has been after there was no pre-existing relationship with Marrow so I can appreciate the loyalty to Stoops (granted, the $$$ help) even if it stinks for us.
Mark Stoops and the University of Kentucky football program might've just won their biggest recruiting battle yet. The school announced Monday that tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow, who had been courted by Michigan, has agreed to a contract extension through June of 2018.
Financial details of the new deal were not immediately available, a UK spokesman said, but a source familiar with the situation said Marrow will receive a substantial raise from his $275,000 annual salary on the previous contract, which was set to expire in June of 2016.
Stoops met with Marrow throughout the weekend and with UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart on Sunday night to come up with a sufficient counteroffer after new Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh tried to lure away Marrow, the Wildcats' primary Ohio recruiter who has cleaned up in that state. Marrow and Stoops ironed out the final terms of the extension Monday afternoon, a source said.
After reports that Michigan had offered Marrow a job, Stoops spoke to Harbaugh directly, a source said, and found that the interest in Marrow "was legit." Kentucky's coach was "pretty concerned" he might lose Marrow and made keeping him a priority.
In the last three classes, Marrow has landed 21 commitments from top Ohio high school recruits – six in the Class of 2015 – plus three Nebraska transfers who are Ohio natives. Included in that haul are 10 four-star recruits, as rated by Rivals.com.
In the 10 years before Marrow arrived, UK signed just five top-40 Ohio recruits. In three classes with Marrow, the Cats have landed landed 20 (including transfers). They've gotten 14 top-25 Ohio prospects and six top-10 players from the state. There were only four scholarship players from Ohio on Kentucky's roster when Marrow was hired.
January 5th, 2015 at 4:42 PM ^
Does this mean he didn't take Marrow's word for it?
January 5th, 2015 at 5:35 PM ^
but there's a big difference between Michigan having interest in him, and Michigan offering him the job. I'm sure Stoops was just confirming what Marrow said in order to help keep him at Kentucky. For instance, depending on the interest Michigan had, it could effect the amount of money they offered him in the raise.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:35 PM ^
but there's a big difference between Michigan having interest in him, and Michigan offering him the job. I'm sure Stoops was just confirming what Marrow said in order to help keep him at Kentucky. For instance, depending on the interest Michigan had, it could effect the amount of money they offered him in the raise.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:37 PM ^
Multiple posts. My bad guys.
January 5th, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^
they are not about OSU jerseys
January 5th, 2015 at 4:43 PM ^
If there's anything I've taken from the general hysteria over the last few months, it's that I'm fairly certain that this entire CC phenomenon hinges on an informal agreement among the coaching fraternity that anyone in a position to offer anyone else a job will throw out a few feelers to get someone else a bigger/better/longer contract, and it's up to them to eventually pay it forward.
January 5th, 2015 at 4:46 PM ^
if he can keep some Ohio recruits out of Columbus, maybe there's a silver lining to that cloud.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^
I wish it were so. All he is doiing is keeping them out of Illinois and Purdue and other BigTen middle-of the-pack teams.
January 5th, 2015 at 4:56 PM ^
Not sure what the fascination is with "Ohio" recruits. OSU pretty much picks the cream every year and then leaves schools like Kentucky, Purdue, Indiana, and Sparty to pick over the scraps.
Make no mistake, just because he is recruiting Ohio does not mean he's competing against OSU.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^
Morrow must be a pretty strong recruiter to land the leftover 4 stars that didn't have offers from OSU, UM, PSU, MSU and get them to come to Kentucky of all places. I had the same initial reaction as you... is this guy really that good because he's landing guys the major Big Ten powers had not offered.. but considering that Kentucky hasn't even had a shred of the success a school like nearby Cincinnati or Louisville has had in football, it's impressive the job he's doing.
Combine his apparent recruiting skills with the Michigan program behind him, and I have to think he could have cultivated those Ohio ties into quite a bit of success here. I'm bummed it didn't work out.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^
I agree with the guy above re: head to head v OSU but again its Kentucky v OSU. It would require a miracle worker to beat out Ohio kids for OSU.
But he was beating out MSU a lot in head to head battles in Ohio - they were scratching their heads on the RCMB 1-2 years ago how they could be losing recruitin battles to Kentucky. It was especially strange for them because they have been used to going into Ohio and getting "second tier" guys that Tressel recommended to Dantonio (but didnt have room for at OSU) for years.
Also I believe he is ffrom Youngstown OH so effectively that is a location that makes you a PA and OH recruiter - the 2 hotbeds of talent left in the Midwest. And if you walk into a HS with all those relationships with a UM jacket on vs a UK jacket on you are now directly taking stabs into the eyes of OSU rather than MSU.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:11 PM ^
He is playing off of the "glamour" of being in the SEC versus the Big Ten, even though it's only Kentucky.
If Ohio State did anything, at least they did the middle of the pack Big Ten teams a favor by making the Big Ten look like an actual viable conference and not just a second MAC conference.
January 5th, 2015 at 6:20 PM ^
Also, the Kentucky BB bagman is now doing some Football recruiting on the side so it becomes even more relevant....
January 5th, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^
Yeah I don't really get all the fuss. OSU will have the 1st pick among the Ohio players, then Michigan then the rest.
When UK actually does something on the field and then starts competing against OSU and Michigan for recruits in Ohio, let me know.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:03 PM ^
and I think that we naturallly ended up (well, me anyway) where we did with Ohio recruits. But if this guy can get some of the players he's getting with the resources UK has, imagine what he could have done with the resources at Michigan's disposal?
January 5th, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^
against OSU and UM on the field... that does not mean Morrow is not good at his job and an attractive option. It just means the sum of Morrow+UK is less than the potential of Morrow+UM. Big difference having the UM brand behind you vs UK in recruiting.
Yeah, I wouldn't have expected Morrow to beat OSU head to head for recruits out of Glenville for example, but I don't think anyone UM ends up with is going to be doing that with any consistency... at least not until they start winning against OSU over a period of time.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:04 PM ^
I think the dynamic to think about is the ripple effect. It's not necessarily that Kentucky will get Shaun Crawford. It's that Kentucky will get Andrew Dowell/David Dowell...and then their friend will be inclined to check out Kentucky next year. And then that friend's friend will check them out in 2017. Suddenly, you've got inroads with a bunch of Ohio schools, and now you've got those relationships to fight through. And there are always guys who slip through the cracks, for whatever reason(s). We saw Nick Perry go to USC, Jake Fisher go to Oregon, Anthony Zettel go to Penn State, etc.
Plus, Ohio puts out a lot of big-time college players. Other than the obvious ones in the south (Louisiana, Florida, California, Texas, etc.) and west (California), Ohio is one of the best football states in the country.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:14 PM ^
I may be misunderstanding you here, but if not I disagree 100%...Marrow at UK is not going to compete with OSU for the top prospects in Ohio, but Marrow at Michigan absolutely would.
January 5th, 2015 at 4:59 PM ^
Sounds like Marrow had Stoops and UK by the balls, and was able to leveraged it into a big raise and job security. Pretty good for someone who was a Graduate Assistant less than three years ago.
January 5th, 2015 at 8:44 PM ^
... if his recruiting in Ohio is a big part of the upgrade in the UK talent and the UK success. Staying at UK is no lose for him. He'll get a lot more ups for making UK successful under Stoops than he will for making UM successful under Harbaugh.
January 5th, 2015 at 4:59 PM ^
I like the idea of coaches being up front with one another and being straight about ther intentions. I respect all parties involved here. U-M made the offer and UK did what they needed to protect their interests. Doesn't sound like Morrow was leveraging the situation; he just benefited from it.
On to the next target.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:00 PM ^
So he's probably going to be making 400-500k to coach TEs and recruit?
January 5th, 2015 at 5:06 PM ^
I would assume more like the $330k range. A 20% increase is significant. Anything more would be silly.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^
It may just be Kentucky, but it's still the SEC. Football is king.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:34 PM ^
Not at Kentucky.
January 5th, 2015 at 6:09 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 5th, 2015 at 6:40 PM ^
It's not even a Prince at UK.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^
Unbelievable that this TE coach (granted he's a rockstar recruiter) makes (made) more than what Michigan would offer Rich Rod's defensive coordinator 7 years ago. I feel like these coaching salaries are on a bubble that can only last so long.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:41 PM ^
Coaches are just getting a larger piece of an ever-increasing "pie." I like this because it may encourage more players to go to class, follow through with their degrees and work towards being coaches someday.
January 5th, 2015 at 8:54 PM ^
I think coaches are ridiculously underpaid when you look at their impact on the product on the field. I would have had no problem paying harbaugh 10 million and letting him spend 5 mil a year on staff; it sounds crazy but the increase of revenue from winning vs. losing, especially somewhere that isn't 'legacy', can be 10s of millions of dollars a year.
I think the same thing about the NFL except ten times more...
jdon
January 5th, 2015 at 5:03 PM ^
Look at the brightside, we're forcing Stanford and UK to overpay for position coaches/recruiters.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:09 PM ^
What goes around, come around, but Michigan can afford the coaching salary inflation better than the other programs can.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:08 PM ^
Listening to Sam Webb this morning, I think all of this Kentucky/Marrow talk is a bit overhyped. According to Webb (and I paraphrase), the hype was coming from Marrow. It seems as though Harbaugh was interested, but Marrow was yelling to anyone who'd listen that Harbaugh was coming after him. Webb was confused as to why Marrow would begin recruiting Michigan prospects without even being presented a contract, but maybe it was just Marrow, continuing to hype himself in search of a raise.
If Webb is right, Marrow should be his own agent.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:15 PM ^
"In the last three classes, Marrow has landed 21 commitments from top Ohio high school recruits – six in the Class of 2015 – plus three Nebraska transfers who are Ohio natives. Included in that haul are 10 four-star recruits, as rated by Rivals.com."
Nice. I get their push to keep him, and indeed, it is the same reason we went after him, but then that's just how this particular facet of the coaching world works, I believe.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:18 PM ^
January 5th, 2015 at 5:20 PM ^
I wouldn't worry about the quality of our recruiters. Anyone know if Marrow is a good...coach? Haven't heard one word about that. We need, above all, someone who can bring our the best in our kids.
January 5th, 2015 at 6:25 PM ^
January 5th, 2015 at 7:02 PM ^
Yes it was sort of funny to hear how he is a "great coach" by some here. UK's TEs did very little last year - they have a weird offense. He is basically a recruiter as best as I can tell today. I'd think either Morton or Drevno would be doing more of the TE coaching in the end if he came here.
Not that that is bad, every guy brings different tools - Drevno is supposedly not a great recruiter but I could care less - with the OL development is so important I'd take a 9 developer and 5 recruiter vs vice versa.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:19 PM ^
tough break for us, but can't blame Stoops for doing what was necessary to keep his guy with him at UK.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:23 PM ^
Stoops "What's your deal?"
Harbaugh: "What's YOUR deal?"
January 5th, 2015 at 5:32 PM ^
Maybe Jim should've let that one go to voicemail...whilst he was out sailing..I mean at the Ravens game. /s
January 5th, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^
Jay Riemersma?
Came to Michigan as a QB and developed into a pretty good tight end that went on to play in the NFL for nine seasons. He coached High School as a Head Coach for a few years and totally sucked, but might make a good position coach for the Tight End position, having become a good one from starting out from scratch.
Then again, he might totally suck at the job.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:53 PM ^
January 5th, 2015 at 6:26 PM ^
January 5th, 2015 at 7:20 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 6:12 AM ^
you can't suck at one level and put the team out of its misery by having you get a promotion.
January 5th, 2015 at 5:56 PM ^
January 5th, 2015 at 5:56 PM ^