Vicky Graff Photo
The wait is over.
After weeks of speculation that offensive coordinator Liam Coen was on the verge of being a one-and-done at Kentucky again, it has happened as the Tampa Bay Bucs confirmed Saturday they had hired Coen.
“We are thrilled to welcome Liam Coen as our new offensive coordinator,” said Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles. “Throughout the selection process, Liam stood out for his innovative offensive mind, exceptional coaching skills, and the remarkable impact he’s had at every level of his career.
“We believe his vision and approach to the game will be a tremendous asset to our team, and we look forward to the energy and expertise he brings to our coaching staff.”
Coen was the 11th highest-paid assistant in college football and was scheduled to make $1.8 million in 2024 but Coen’s name was linked with the Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals along with the offensive coordinator at Ohio State and head coach at Boston College. And there could have been more teams reach out to Coen that we did not know about.
Coen, 38, will rejoin quarterback Baker Mayfield with the Bucs if he agrees to contract terms. Coen coached him with the Los Angeles Rams in the 2022 season before Coen came back to UK in 2023.
Coen was with the Rams when UK coach Mark Stoops persuaded him to come to Kentucky in 2021 after former offensive coordinator Eddie Gran was fired. Stoops wanted a NFL-type offense and UK ranked fifth in scoring offense (32.3 points per game), fifth in rushing offense (199.5 yards per game), and eighth in total offense (425.2 yards per game) in the SEC that season with quarterback Will Levis, receiver Wan’Dale Robinson and running back Chris Rodriguez — all now NFL players — leading the way. Kentucky’s 6.41 yards per play was the second-highest average in school history and its 5.23 yards per rush the third-highest.
Coen left to become offensive coordinator with the Rams in 2022 but when Rich Scanagarollo was fired after one season by Stoops, Coen came back to Lexington.
“I just want to go somewhere, make a real impact, plant some roots a little bit. Be somewhere for a few years, at least, that you feel really good about,” Coen said in January of 2023 when he came back.
Obviously, those words seem a little off to UK fans but I have no doubts Coen meant what he said at the time and in today’s sports world I don’t think it is fair to hold what any coach or player might have said a year ago against him. NFL teams did reach out to Coen and it’s nice to have coaches on a staff that other teams covet. Coen may have also felt he needed to do the interviews to build future NFL relationships like most college coordinators/assistant coaches would have done.
No other college offensive coordinator had his name mentioned with NFL teams like Coen did and it’s obvious he enjoyed coaching in the NFL. Maybe he thought a return to college coaching would be less hectic but maybe the transfer portal and NIL have made the year-round work schedule college coaches now have not quite as attractive as being in the NFL where there is no recruiting or NIL issues for coaches to worry about.
Coen and his wife made it clear they enjoyed being in Lexington and were active in the community in various ways. But when opportunity knocks, sometimes you just cannot say no and that happens in every job field.
But there’s no denying the timing is a problem for the UK football program and for players. Not every player picks a school because of a specific coach but most do. Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff came to UK to play for Coen but his father has said he will stay put. Lexington Christian Academy Cutter Boley had numerous big-time national offers but chose to stay home and play for Coen. He obviously will have to evaluate his future once a new offensive coordinator is named.
Receivers Ja’Mori Maclin (North Texas) and Raymond Cottrell (Texas A&M) transferred to UK to be in Coen’s offense even though Cottrell was quick to post on social media he was not leaving. Four-star Pennsylvania quarterback Stone Saunders, a 2025 commit, said last week Coen told him he was staying at UK — and then the Bucs offer came.
The Bucs noted in their release about Coen that he “guided two of the most productive offenses” in UK history with the Cats scoring 56 touchdowns in 2021 and 50 in 2023 when the Cats won a combined 17 games. Yet I don’t think most UK fans — or even Coen and Stoops — considered the 2023 season all that great offensively.
Kentucky fans now just need to wish Coen well and pray Stoops makes the right hire. This will be UK’s fourth straight season with a different offensive coordinator than the previous season. While that might seem like a huge negative, Lexington Herald-Leader columnist John Clay pointed out that Florida’s Rob Sale and Mississippi’s Charlie Weis Jr. are the SEC’s longest tenured offensive coordinators with two years at their current jobs — and Sale doesn’t even call the plays.
Clay said counting Texas and Oklahoma, nine of the 16 SEC schools will have a new offensive coordinator for the 2024 season so change is just a way of life with the big expectations on almost every college football team.
Coen can be replaced. UK’s offense was 116th nationally in total offense in 2022 when fans were upset all season with Scangarello. But in 2023, the UK offense ranked only 100th and took more time than any other team just to get a play off. The Cats went from averaging 32.3 points and 424 yards per game in 2021 under Coen to 29.1 points and 339 yards last season.
Stoops surely has been putting a plan in place to hire a new offensive coordinator with so many Coen rumors swirling for several weeks and with spring practice starting next month, he needs to make the right hire soon.
Players cannot transfer now but at the end of the spring semester they can and Stoops needs to get the right person in place to show players of all ages that playing football at Kentucky is still the right place for them.
5 Responses
We should have been paying Coen $9 million a year.
Coen got us twice now. Too early to know the recruiting damage from him jumping ship for 2nd time in 3 yrs. We seem to have a pretty solid target list from what has been shown to date. He really didn’t show a lot in 23 and his heart wasn’t as committed as his lips. He did show a lot of pressure in his pre and post game interviews.
There seems to be something wrong with the UK coaching staff, including the head coach. I have no information, and can only guess, but
the past two seasons do not comport with the talent level at the skill positions,
the special teams’ play lacks any indication of coaching, even bad coaching because Stoops refuses to hire a Special Teams Coach.
The OL has been in decline for the last 2 seasons, and the revolving door situation with OL coaches must be a significant factor.
And then there is the Offensive Coordinator. How many have there been during the Stoops’ Era? I can’t remember them all. Eddie Gran ran an impressive offense while he coached at Cincinnati but here he never seemed to find anything close to the offensive performance as his Cincy teams showed. There have been those who contend that the fundamental issue with UK’s offense is that Coach Stoops won’t let the OC run the offense, and Coach Stoops imposes restrictions on the offense for some inexplicable reason.
The Movement of Coen in, out, back in, and now back out in 3 years, is unacceptable to me as a fan, and I would hope it is unacceptable to those in charge of protecting the football program. Add to the OC situation, this situation with the OL coach, who left without much if any prior notice to move to Alabama, who is now rehired.
I am very concerned that UK’s brain trust, if it really has one, must now develop a short list of potential replacements for Stoops.
No clue why Coen wanted to make the move, but if that was where his heart is then best of luck to him. Stoops has some options, personally I hope he looks hard at going with someone that like more of the air raid system. Obviously, they need to be a good recruiter. UK has indeed improved the talent level, but wow is there a massive gap between them and the tops 5 SEC teams!!
It’s a free country, so good for Coen, I guess, if he’s happy. That said, Coen disappointed many UK football fans with this latest tilt while bringing in $1.8 mil, and making on his return to UK a "putting down roots" speech. Loyalty today is an after thought. A man’s word means very little today in big time sports.
I was not all that impressed with the UK’s offense in 2023 under Coen frankly. Leary never lived up to all the hype nor his team, and apparently Coen didn’t help Leary’s game all that much IMO as his OC and QB coach. Coen always looked like a deer in the headlights to me at post game interviews. One last point, I could care less about the NFL.
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This will be Stoop’s most important hire since he has been at UK I think. He must get this right. If Stoops does not produce in 2024 8 to 10 wins, I believe UK should make a change. UK has far to much talent now to settle for 7 win seasons. Problem though is that Stoops’ and his staff have recruited well for Kentucky football. That could become problematic with a new head coach. UK could indeed lose good players to the portal as well.