Vince Marrow mocks Kentucky's attempt to steal key staff member

As Will Stein keeps piecing together his first staff at Kentucky, he tried to make an early statement: go into Louisville’s building and pull a key assistant out.

Jody Demling reported that Stein targeted Steve Ellis, hoping to bring the Cardinals’ defensive backs coach with him to Lexington. Instead, Ellis turned the Wildcats down and chose to stay right where he is.

The Big Dawg is still barking just not for Kentucky football anymore

Enter Vince Marrow, now wearing red and black instead of blue and white but still very much the Big Dawg. He jumped on X and let everyone know exactly how he felt about Kentucky’s swing and miss:

“Don’t mess with the Big Dawg. He knows we own the state. The best DB coach in college football.”

Coming from a Louisville assistant, you can not really argue too much at this point as a Kentucky fan. The scoreboard says the Cards have outscored the Cats 82–14 the last two seasons, including that 41–0 humiliation in Louisville when the Wildcats had everything to play for and Mark Stoops was coaching for his job. That blowout ended up being the final straw and helped push Stoops out the door for good.

Now you’ve got Marrow, Stoops’ longtime right-hand man, talking about “owning the state” from the Louisville sideline while Kentucky scrambles to reset under Stein. It’s petty, it’s emotional, and it’s exactly why this rivalry never really cools off.

Kentucky has already moved to Josh Christian-Young, the safeties coach from Houston, as a key piece in the new defensive backfield structure. Whether he ends up with just the safeties or the entire DB room, he’ll be judged against a very loud measuring stick sitting 70 miles down the road.

The reality right now? Louisville kept its DB coach. Kentucky took the L on this round of staffing tug-of-war. And Vince Marrow made sure the whole state heard about it.

Stein will get his shots too. But if this week is any indication, neither side plans to be quiet.