Five Things Liam Coen Said About the Future of Kentucky Football, His Return as Offensive Coordinator
Liam Coen has officially returned to Kentucky football as its offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the second time in three years, returning to Lexington after spending one season as OC of the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL.
Coen signed a three-year contract on Dec. 12, though the news wasn't made official by Kentucky until Tuesday, Jan. 10. He'll make $1.7 million in his first year back in the Bluegrass. Coen was with the Rams from 2018-2020, where he was an assistant wide receivers coach, then assistant quarterbacks coach. He was then hired to replace Eddie Gran, who was relieved of his OC and running backs coach duties after a five-year stint from 2016-2020.
In his sole year as play-caller, Coen's pro-style attack spearheaded Kentucky to its best offensive season under head coach Mark Stoops, as it ranked 47th in total offense en route to its fourth 10-win season in program history. The season was capped off with a 20-17 Citrus Bowl victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes.
He's now back to lead the offense in 2022 and will be met with some new and familiar faces, both on the coaching staff and on the roster.
"Being apart of the Kentucky culture again, coming back to a place that I truly, really didn't want to leave," Coen said in an opening statement. "We truly did not want to leave Lexington. The opportunity to come back and coach for Coach Stoops and be around these players and have an impact on young people's lives...was ultimately the decision to come back and do this at a high level, couldn't be more thankful."
On Thursday, Coen met with reporters to discuss his return to UK. Here are five things you need to know regarding the future of Kentucky football with Coen back as the OC:
The transition should be smooth
The nice part for UK about the return of Coen is that the buffer between his first stint and second lasted just one season.
Plenty can — and did — change since his departure and return, but there will be many things that are still the same from when he originally arrived for the 2021 campaign.
"The way it's going to look offensively is not going to be the same. The core foundation, beliefs, the standards at which we want to operate with on a day-to-day basis, those will be the same," Coen said. "I think there's enough continuity and communication that we can have that will exist to ultimately get on the same page with plenty enough time going into spring practice."
Kentucky hit the transfer portal hard while also building a solid high school recruiting class, but the Wildcats will also welcome back some key pieces, including three super senior veterans on offense that will batten down the hatches — tight end Brenden Bates, wide receiver Tayvion Robinson and offensive lineman Kenneth Horsey.
"Excited about some of the young talent, excited about some of the guys that are deciding to come back...Brenden Bates and (Kenneth) Horsey, those guys that are veterans and do know maybe my style of coaching, philosophy, the standards," he said.
"Haven't had a ton of time to truly dive into each player, but I do feel as though there's enough guys on the offensive side of the ball that I do have familiarity with, that ultimately the personnel decisions can be expedited when I do get there."
Quarterback Will Levis has left the building, however. In his place is someone that Coen feels really good about moving into 2023:
Familiarity and compatibility with Devin Leary
The prized catch of the portal for Mark Stoops and the Cats is NC State QB Devin Leary:
"Devin's a guy — from South Jersey, familiarity with a couple of players — he's in that same area growing up in high school coming up. I know the type of kid that he is and he can throw the football very naturally, different than Will (Levis)," Coen said of the quarterback.
Across five seasons in Raleigh, Leary compiled 6,807 passing yards, 62 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. He has also ran for five scores as a member of the Wolfpack from 2018-22.
The Wildcats are getting an established passer who has a track record of making smarts throw and keeping his team in the game through the air. The transition from the Levis era now also appears much easier. Coen found massive success with Levis, but knows that things will be different with Leary under center.
"Each season, each offense, it's always going to be tweaked a little bit, right? The way that the Los Angeles Rams operated in 2021 was extremely different than the way we operated in 2020 — with Jared Goff versus Matthew Stafford. The QB does depend on a lot of things you're going to do schematically, I do believe that this guy can throw the football as good as anyone in the country," he said.
Levis' career trajectory was massively altered after succeeding in Lexington, part of which should be pinned to the help of Coen. Seeing that sort of development is clearly something that interests Leary, and Coen knows what he'll need to do to get him to the next level:
"He wanted to come to Kentucky — obviously to win football games — but to have an opportunity to win an SEC Championship, but also to be developed into a future NFL QB. He knows that he needs to jump under center a little more and do some of the things that he hasn't done in his career yet up to this point — in order to have some more comfort going in to play at the highest level of football. I think we're all on the same page in terms of that dialogue ... a lot of this is going to be about Devin and what he's comfortable with, it's his last year of football."
Fixing the offensive line is on the top of the list
Coen was over the moon with the Big Blue Wall in 2021, mainly because there were three future NFL players doing the job in the best way possible, protecting Will Levis and creating holes for Chris Rodriguez Jr.
"We had experience. That was different," Coen said. "We had three players on that offensive line that went on to play in the National Football League ... There's a different set of experience, different personalities in that room."
"I do remember, the first time that I came (to Kentucky), that was kind of the unit that I never really worried about. I never really worried about if they were going to come to play. I never worried about third and one not getting a first down. It was never something that crossed my mind when I got there."
The 2022 O-line was putrid, to say the least, allowing sack after sack while even someone as powerful as Rodriguez struggled to get going at times. Kentucky added two lineman via the transfer portal in Marques Cox and Tanner Bowles, while Horsey and center Eli Cox are on the way back.
"That's the number one priority when we get there, diving into that position group. Personnel wise, schematically, fundamentally, technique, attitude, demeanor, all of that needs to get dove into really quickly when we get there," Coen said.
The pieces are in place for the 2023 group to be in a better spot than this past season, but Coen is ready to do the work with offensive line coach Zach Yenser, someone he's had nothing but positive interactions with thus far.
"It's a room, it's a unit that we need to address and address quickly when we get there. Because really, the offensive line, if you think about it, that's more than a third of your unit on a play-to-play basis. And if those five aren't on the same page, don't have the right mentality, or aren't doing what they're supposed to do, it's really hard to have success as an offense no matter who's around them," he said. "So that is it's an exciting challenge, but it's definitely a challenge that we need to get after."
Excitement surrounding the wide receiver and running back rooms continues
Diving into the skill talent, regaining veteran Tayvion Robinson in the WR room is major for Coen moving into 2023. Robinson caught 40 passes for the Cats in 2022.
"I think the room is going to be filled with competition, that's for sure. Tayvion was coming in when I was leaving the first time around, we were excited about some of the things he was going to be able to do out of the slot and in the return game. I know that it was probably not exactly the year that he was hoping to have, but I believe having him back, to get somebody that's played a lot of football and has a lot of experience, it's great to have."
Robinson will serve as a leader for a rather young room, though freshmen sensations Dane Key and Barion Brown excelled in their first seasons in Lexington. There's plenty of skill in the room, though Coen sees a majority of it as untapped:
"That room is talented for sure, but there's so much meat on that bone. There's so much coaching, there's so much work to be done over the next couple of months here," he said.
"Excited about Dekel Crowdus, excited about some of these younger guys that we can also look at and evaluate that's not just Barion and Dane. We need to continue to get better in that room. That speaks to the guys that are there and recruiting. We need to continue to recruit that room at a high level."
In the running back room, Rodriguez is gone and Kavosiey Smoke is transferring to Colorado. Kentucky landed a portal RB of its own in 1,000-yard rusher at Vanderbilt Ray Davis. He'll potentially spearhead the attack alongside JuTahn McClain and perhaps veteran Ramon Jefferson — who missed all of the 2022 season after tearing his ACL in week one.
Replacing the talent that has consistently come out of that room will be a challenge, so Coen is hoping for someone to take charge throughout the spring moving forward:
"I haven't been able to truly evaluate — as much — that room as i'd like to. I think the spring is a really good time to just really let these guys go out and roll the ball out and let them go and see who's going to take it over. C-Rod's not walking back in ... whoever can run and execute and gain yards and break tackles and be the guy in that room, that's who it's going to be — if it has to be a little more by committee, that's something we'll have to do as well. I'm excited about some of the guys in that room, but somebody needs to emerge and take it over."
Coen missed Kentucky and isn't planning on leaving quickly again
Perhaps the most important part of Coen's decision wasn't about football. He realized during his season away from Lexington that he was missing out on some parts of being a coach that he couldn't get in Los Angeles:
"When you go and call plays at a high level in the SEC, then you stop calling plays, I probably missed that more than I thought I was going to," he said. "I really missed calling plays and truly leading."
"Both of my parents were teachers ... you start to miss the impact that you might have on these guys lives a little bit," he said. "I missed helping when it was a little bit more than football, we missed as a family having players over for dinner and having the guys around, he continued. "This was an unbelievable opportunity, I don't think a lot of people would disagree with that. Then you get into it — shoot, i'm working with Matthew Stafford, one of the best QBs to ever play the game. You realize pretty quickly, they don't need you really but to help them schematically and continue to help them grow from a football standpoint."
Leaving UK after one year wasn't originally in the cards, but when the opportunity to become the offensive coordinator of the defending Super Bowl champs pops up, it's not a gig that you can just say no to.
"The opportunity and the jump I was taking to go back there was not really normal. An opportunity that you're like 'man I don't know if this is ever gonna come up again.' I looked at like a once in a lifetime opportunity at the time."
Coen took the chance, but began to realize that perhaps Lexington and UK meant even more to he and his family than originally thought. Luckily, the chance to come back for a second go-round emerged, and he took the happily took the shot.
He isn't planning on bouncing after one season again, either.
"I just want to go somewhere, make a real impact and plant some roots for a little bit. Be somewhere for a few years — at least — that you feel really good about," he said. "I'm excited about being back in Lexington ... there's a lot about the SEC and college football that I missed, and i'm not in a rush to go anywhere."
Kentucky's Early Signing Period tracker can be found here.
Kentucky's transfer portal tracker can be found here.
Read what Mark Stoops said about new QB Devin Leary here.
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