It is difficult to separate Toledo football from Vince Marrow, and vice versa.
Marrow was an all-conference tight end at the University of Toledo en route to a 10-year professional playing career. After a few years coaching in the now-defunct NFL Europe league, he returned to the Toledo area to become the head coach at Springfield High School.
Following a year of coaching in the high school ranks, Marrow returned to UT as the tight ends coach. At the same time, he sent his son to Central Catholic.
As a player, coach, recruiter, and parent, Marrow became familiar with the coaches in the area and the level of talent on the field.
“I really grew fond of the area,” he said. “It was an area that really helped my football career as a player and then helped start my career as a coach, so I’ve got a lot of loyalty there, to the people and a lot of the high school players and coaches.”
When Marrow took a job at the University of Nebraska, he began recruiting the Toledo area in earnest. When he joined Mark Stoops’ staff at Kentucky in 2012, that effort took off.
He mentioned Northview’s Luke Fortner and Whitmer’s Phil Hoskins, recruits who joined the Wildcats in 2016 and 2017 respectively, as players who helped turn the program around. While they were part of much broader efforts, the northwest Ohio recruits were key contributors in building up the Wildcats’ strength and toughness at the line of scrimmage.
Fortner was part of an offensive line that opened up holes for all-American running back Benny Snell, Jr., and Hoskins recorded 30 tackles and an interception along the defensive line in his final year.
Under Stoops’ guidance, and especially while Fortner and Hoskins played there, Kentucky went from an SEC afterthought to a heavyweight program. The Wildcats snapped a 31-year losing streak against their rivals at the University of Florida and kicked off a run of seven winning seasons over the past eight years, a feat the program had not accomplished since the 1950s, including the first two 10-win seasons since the 1970s.
Both Fortner and Hoskins are in the NFL now, and Hoskins remains fiercely proud of his role in Kentucky’s transformation. He described it as one of the best places to play football and get an education. While he joked around about the school’s historical struggles and guaranteeing he would bring a championship to Lexington in the EA Sports College Football 25 video game, he became serious in describing his relationship with Marrow.
“He kind of was like a father figure,” Hoskins said. “I could tell what kind of guy he was. He was also from Ohio, and me and him kind of had similar stories growing up so he could relate to me in a lot of ways. So I just felt comfortable with him.”
That kind of bond, combined with Marrow’s ability to build relationships with Hoskins’ family, made the decision to enroll a no-brainer.
Hoskins and Fortner are not the only two to take their talents from the Toledo area to Lexington over the past two decades. Most major recruits in the area have received an offer from Marrow, with several others accepting.
Last fall, Marc Nave, a three-star recruit out of Central Catholic, decommitted from Ohio State to join the Wildcats. Looking ahead, five Toledo-area players in the next two graduating classes have already received offers from Kentucky. In Marrow’s mind, there’s no reason to stop any time soon.
“As long as I’m college coaching, I’m always gonna recruit the Toledo area very big because there’s good coaching, good prospects, and good families there,” he said.
Greg Dempsey, in addition to coaching Nave and several other high level recruits at Central Catholic, also coached Marrow’s son for a year. In that time, he got to know the elder Marrow well, and the two have remained in communication since then.
One aspect of Marrow’s recruiting that Dempsey highlighted was his willingness to offer scholarships relatively early in the process. In fact, he was the first Power Five (now Power Four) coach to make Nave an offer, which Dempsey believes was a critical factor come decision time.
“One thing Coach Marrow’s really good at is building relationships with people, whether it’s kids or adults,” Dempsey said. “That’s how he builds off of recruiting, starting a relationship early and it builds and it grows. … His rapport he builds with coaches and high school athletes and high school athletes’ families is something that he’s very genuine about.”
With SEC teams always looking to gain a recruiting advantage, Kentucky’s success with players from the Toledo area has not gone unnoticed. Slowly but surely, other SEC schools have started extending their visits up north past the big high schools in Columbus and into northwest Ohio.
Both Hoskins and Dempsey are excited about the increased recruiting buzz. As Toledo captures more attention, they believe that it will shine a light on players who otherwise might have been overlooked.
“Our area has always had dominant players,” Hoskins said. “It just takes a few to get the rest noticed.”
Marrow made sure Kentucky didn’t overlook Toledo. Those arriving late to the party will have to work to compete with the decades-old relationship Marrow has established in the area.
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