ADVERTISEMENT

A Great Vince Marrow Piece by Rowland

The-Hack

All-American
Oct 1, 2016
23,251
40,446
113
This piece by Rowland discusses Marrow’s comments on a recent podcast.


Marrow gained my respect in 2018 at the first QB Club meeting.

He very casually pointed out how close, by score, Kentucky had come to a 10 win season in 2017, including their one point loss to Northwestern in the MCB.

He went on to say, “if Terry Wilson is who I think he is, we have a real good shot at ten wins this season”

I sat smiling and soaking in the words from one of the best salesmen I’ve ever met. I really didn’t believe we were headed to ten wins. On that evening in September of 2018, it had been 41 years since Kentucky had won ten games in a season. I was 14 years old in 1977, playing Junior High Football. I sat listening to Marrow as a fat 55 year old, with more than sufficient reasons to consider his words mere “Coach Speak.”

I thought of his pre-season talk as the seconds ticked away in the Citrus Bowl on January 1st, the next year. No one that I know of other than Vince Marrow had even approached the subject of Kentucky winning 10 games prior to the season. Coaches typically do not place numbers and specific goals into the public conscience lightly: it tends to be bad for their professional careers.

Ultimately, Marrow sold me on . . . Vince Marrow. He is never the “loudest in the room,” or the most outspoken in the world of college coaching. Instead, he has a steady, mature view of the game. I would rather listen to his take spoken at a whisper, than most others even if theirs is shouted from the rooftops.

Oddly, in the first Quarterback Club Meeting prior to the first game of 2021, he damn-near recreated the same speech from three years prior: “If Levis is who I think he is . . . .” Again, he essentially predicted the 10 win season that began the next day.

His voice is one to heard.
 
To Marrow’s point, 10 wins is enough to get into the playoffs. But we haven’t gone 10-2 under Stoops. I’m not complaining it’s really really hard, I’m just saying the next time will be the first so it’s not guaranteed.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Ky grandpa
I’m just saying the next time will be the first so it’s not guaranteed.

True.

Buuut,in 2018/19, UF made the NYD6 (ranked 7th or 8th) and spanked Michigan in a Bowl game that would be a playoff matchup if the two met in post-season this year. Yes, Michigan had 6 or 7 sitting out.

In that 2018 regular season, Florida lost badly at home to Mizzou, lost to us at home, and lost to Georgia in Jacksonville finishing the season 9-3, yet was comfortably in the Top 11 by the committee for NYD6 eligibility . . . Penn State was 12th in the committee ranking, and was the “first out,” being bumped by the Top G5 team who was not Top 12, IIRC. And PSU ran into Benny Snell and Josh Allen in the Citrus Bowl.

So 9-3 is not an automatic disqualifying record, and certainly isn’t a lock.

In reality, all SEC teams at 9-3 should be included, if you REALLY wanted to get the Top 12 teams in the US in the playoffs.

But we all know that won’t be the case most seasons.

When the playoffs expand to 16, the math changes in a big way: most 9-3 SEC teams will be Top 16 in the nation.

Hence my nickel prediction: with a 16 team playoff, we will see an All SEC Final Four within the first five years of such a system, and 50 percent of Title Games will be SEC vs. SEC.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dddjdd
True.

Buuut,in 2018/19, UF made the NYD6 (ranked 7th or 8th) and spanked Michigan in a Bowl game that would be a playoff matchup if the two met in post-season this year. Yes, Michigan had 6 or 7 sitting out.

In that 2018 regular season, Florida lost badly at home to Mizzou, lost to us at home, and lost to Georgia in Jacksonville finishing the season 9-3, yet was comfortably in the Top 11 by the committee for NYD6 eligibility . . . Penn State was 12th in the committee ranking, and was the “first out,” being bumped by the Top G5 team who was not Top 12, IIRC. And PSU ran into Benny Snell and Josh Allen in the Citrus Bowl.

So 9-3 is not an automatic disqualifying record, and certainly isn’t a lock.

In reality, all SEC teams at 9-3 should be included, if you REALLY wanted to get the Top 12 teams in the US in the playoffs.

But we all know that won’t be the case most seasons.

When the playoffs expand to 16, the math changes in a big way: most 9-3 SEC teams will be Top 16 in the nation.

Hence my nickel prediction: with a 16 team playoff, we will see an All SEC Final Four within the first five years of such a system, and 50 percent of Title Games will be SEC vs. SEC.
Good post. I think when I looked it up we were not top 12 at end of regular season either of the times we went 9-3 but doesn’t surprise me other SEC teams have been. And we’d have a good argument to be.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The-Hack
And we’d have a good argument to be.


And here’s a strange way the U of L game could actually help us.

Any season that U of L compiles a guady 10-1 or 9-2 record beating the BC’s and
Syracuse’s of the world, we could see that game as a “Play Off Play In,” should we also have eight or more wins.

They were ranked 10th this season when we played. Sure, a 6-5 Kentucky team handled them, but the committee had them knocking on the door of the Play Offs. Had we been in the same spot as 2018/19 and 2021/22 coming in in the Top 20, looking for our ninth win, a win over them might just get us into the Top 11.
 
Marrow keeps us deep with high quality tight ends, among many other contributions to other positions. He said that Rodriguez is pushing the older guys for playing time. Even said he already looks better physically than some of the older guys.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT