Rich Scangarello, right, coached Jimmy Garoppolo last season when the 49ers made the NFC Championship game. (San Francisco 49ers Photo)
When Kentucky hired Rich Scangarello as its offensive coordinator, he had already knew a little bit about the Kentucky offense
“It’s random. But I caught the LSU game last year and I was like, ‘This guy’s pretty good.’ It was just something I remembered,” said Scangarello, the quarterbacks coach with the San Francisco 49ers the last four years.
This guy was quarterback Will Levis, who led UK to 10 wins and a bowl victory last year after transferring from Penn State. He threw for 2,826 yards and 24 touchdowns last season and returned to UK to improve his NFL status.
”When this all happened pretty fast and I went back and watched Kentucky’s tape the qualities I would look for in a quarterback, he possesses a lot of and I think it’s fun to work with guys like that and help them bring out their best game and that’s my goal,” Scangarello said.
He’s shown he can do that working with NFL quarterbacks like Matt Ryan, Jimmy Garoppolo and Drew Lock. Kentucky coach Mark Stoops had Levis sit in on some interviews/calls with potential offensive coordinators to get his input.
“I really wanted his input,” Stoops said. “A year ago when I made this hire, I left and I went out and nobody was involved. Just myself .. this year it was the complete opposite because we’re building something.”
Stoops hired Liam Coen a year ago after he fired Eddie Gran. Coen recently returned to the Los Angeles Rams as offensive coordinator so Stoops snatched Scangarello, who is used to an offensive system similar to the one Coen used at UK. Stoops wanted that “seamless transition” after last year’s success.
“I would say we’re from the same family, the tree of the system itself,” Scangarello said about his offense compared to what Coen used. “The last thing I’d want to do is bog down the players by reinventing the wheel. They have a great foundation, but like anything, you want to put your own spin on it.”
Stoops likes that Coen and Scangarello speak the same language.
“There’s some differences but it will be an easy carryover,” Stoops said.
