Liam Coen (UK Athletics Photo)
How does Kentucky coach Mark Stoops feel offensive coordinator Liam Coen has handled his first year as UK’s offensive coordinator? Kentucky started 6-0, lost three straight, and then beat Vanderbilt and will take a 7-3 record into Saturday afternoon’s home game with New Mexico State.
“I think he’s handled it exceptionally well because, as you know, in experience through the years, it can really beat you up; it’s hard,” Stoops said. “It’s extremely hard to be a play-caller on either side because we see such a variety on both sides of the ball.
“Especially since you see a variety of things, you have to be so well prepared for so many different things and he’s handled it extremely well. Our players are extremely confident and that comes from him and the leadership that he’s shown, being adaptable and learning because it is different, it’s different than the NFL.”
Coen came to the Cats from the NFL where he coached with the Los Angeles Rams and even though Coen has college experience, this year has been a learning experience for him.
“We have a little bit more flexibility with certain things and trying to take advantage of that,” Stoops said. “In a critical third-down Saturday (at Vanderbilt), new formation you can’t run in the NFL, when we ran Q-power out of an unbalanced set, you can’t do that in the NFL. So that’s the type of adaptability that you’ve seen with him,” Stoops said.
6 Responses
Liam is doing a good job. Our defense is the problem. We finally beat Florida and LSU in the same season, lose to a Georgia team that is beating everyone, but losing to Mississippi St. and Tennessee shows that we are still SEC wannabes. Florida and LSU will be better next year. So will M St. and TN. Missouri and S. Carolina are improving too. We will win the cupcake game this Saturday, but the Louisville game has me worried. Stoops needs to buy a gross of FlexSeal tape and patch up the holes in the defense. There is a huge difference in finishing the season at 10 – 3 and 8 – 5 and it will show up in our recruiting. We still need a couple of 5 star players on both sides of the ball. Make it happen Coach.
Regardless were better off now than 10-11 years ago, i hate it when our fan base doesn’t appreciate it what we got now. Because before Stoops came along we were a laughing stock to say at the least.
Definitely has upgraded the program
The defense is getting worse by the week since week 6.
The offense has been getting stronger throughout the season.
UK will beat New Mexico State Saturday even with its weakest effort of the season, but it will need a strong performance, especially from its defense, to beat UL the following week.
We’re going to win out and win our bowl game.
Go CATS!
The only thing wrong with UK football right now is they need more depth. I mean specifically, more talent depth. Stoops is trying to change that, and his staff has made great progress.
I say UK football finishes the season 9-3. At the start of the 2021 many had doubts about all that. UK has done well if you think about their past. They have a shot at a ten win season. Not bad if you look on the bright side. Football is not an after thought at UK anymore these days, and that in itself is very good to see.