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Liam Coen has suddenly become the indispensable assistant that Kentucky can’t — but might — lose
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Sooner or later, Liam Coen’s time will come and he’ll continue his rapid climb up the coaching ladder. It’s inevitable. He overhauled Kentucky’s offense in his first season in Lexington, and if recent history tells us anything, it’s that working on Sean McVay’s offensive staff is essentially like a “fast pass” at Disney World. Coen did that for 3 years before joining Mark Stoops’ staff in 2021.
Speaking of Disney World, there’s a chance that Coen’s last game as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator was the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, wherein the Cats stormed back late for a comeback win against Iowa. At this point, the question doesn’t seem to be whether Coen will leave for another college assistant gig. Reported interest from Mario Cristobal at Miami didn’t lead to anything.
But the second the clock hits zero on Super Bowl Sunday, another clock will begin for Kentucky.
Is Coen about to go back to Los Angeles to be McVay’s new offensive coordinator?
It’s a fair question. Go figure that Jim Harbaugh not becoming the Vikings new head coach could have a ripple effect felt in Lexington. That job went to Kevin O’Connell, AKA McVay’s offensive coordinator who will coach in his last game with the team in Super Bowl LVI.
McVay gave Coen his first major opportunity in the coaching profession in 2018. Coen worked as the Rams assistant receivers coach in 2018-19, and then as the assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020. In 2021, during Coen’s first season as an FBS play-caller, he and McVay talked after every Kentucky/Rams game.
But what about the play-calling element, you ask?
With the Rams, McVay is the offensive mastermind. He runs the show. It’s a totally different story than Kentucky, where Coen has total autonomy on offense as the play-caller and quarterbacks coach. So why would Coen go to a place where he couldn’t call plays?
Well, history tells us that doesn’t stop McVay assistants from getting bigger opportunities. Since McVay became the youngest head coach in NFL history as a 30-year-old, he had 4 assistants who got NFL head coaching gigs:
- Matt LaFleur, Packers
- Kevin O’Connell, Vikings
- Zac Taylor, Bengals
- Brandon Staley, Chargers
Taylor will coach opposite of McVay on Sunday. Taylor is tight with Coen dating to their days on the Rams staff together in 2018. In fact, it was Taylor (a former Nebraska QB) who gave Coen the rundown on Nebraska transfer Wan’Dale Robinson, who went on to break Kentucky’s single-season records receptions and receiving yards. Robinson’s season in Lexington will go down as one of the best 1-year transfers in recent memory, and it wouldn’t have happened if Coen didn’t sell him on his Cooper Kupp-like role in the revamped offense.
As for Coen’s first season in Lexington, Taylor gave an 83-second answer when asked about his former colleague at Super Bowl LVI Media Day:
Today Bengals coach Zac Taylor talked about his relationship with UK offensive coordinator @LiamCoen and defensive coordinator @CoachWhiteFB
“I think it’s two of Rhode Island’s finest Liam Coen and Brad White leading the charge over at UK.” pic.twitter.com/5SUCAoE9BC
— Lee K. Howard (@HowardWKYT) February 8, 2022
“He’s gonna be a head coach in one of these leagues soon enough, college or pro,” Taylor said. “That’s how much I think of his football IQ, his work ethic and his relationships with his players. I really think the world of Liam.”
Taylor is right. Like McVay, Coen is 36 years old. He and his wife had their first child just before the start of the 2021 season. Whatever next step in life awaits for Coen, it’s clear that he has some powerful people in his corner.
At the same time, O’Connell’s replacement as Rams offensive coordinator will be highly coveted. If that’s the job that Coen wants, he’ll have plenty of competition. McVay could keep it in-house by promoting someone like running backs coach Thomas Brown (the former Georgia running back had the same position with Georgia and South Carolina) or assistant quarterbacks coach Zac Robinson, who replaced Coen after he left for Kentucky.
But one would think Coen’s 2021 will give him a major leg up. Kentucky had the No. 35 offense in FBS (32.3 points per game). Compare that to the rest of the Stoops era (FBS scoring offense ranks):
- 2013 — No. 108
- 2014 — No. 62
- 2015 — No. 95
- 2016 — No. 58
- 2017 — No. 87
- 2018 — No. 85
- 2019 — No. 76
- 2020 — No. 107
- 2021 — No. 35
Sure, Benny Snell and Lynn Bowden provided brilliance, but for most of the Stoops era, the offense lacked balance and stability.
Kentucky went from the SEC’s No. 11 offense in 2020 to No. 5 in 2021. Kentucky hadn’t finished better than No. 9 in the SEC in scoring since 2010, and it hadn’t averaged north of 32 points per game since 2007. Unlike the 2010 and 2007 squads, Coen’s offense helped lead Kentucky to a 10-win season.
Even in the likely event that Stoops would take a page out of Nick Saban’s playbook after Lane Kiffin transformed Alabama’s offense and made that the new standard in Tuscaloosa, there’s no guarantee Coen’s successor would pick up where he left off.
Nobody has to tell Stoops and athletic director Mitch Barnhart about Coen’s value. In 2021, Coen made $775,000. He agreed to a raise after the 2021 season that’ll pay him $1.1 million in 2022, $1.2 million in 2023 and $1.3 million in 2024. Could Coen perhaps earn yet another raise to fend off the Rams? That remains to be seen.
What we do know is that if Kentucky did have to replace Coen, it could have a major impact in the SEC East. It would be a setback for Will Levis, who had more scrimmage yards than any Kentucky QB since Andre Woodson in 2007. Levis enrolled in the summer after transferring from Penn State in 2021 and is set to have his first full offseason in Coen’s offense. If Coen were to go back to Los Angeles, the return of Levis and second-team All-SEC running back Chris Rodriguez would be the silver lining.
As big of a loss as Coen would be, it’s a good problem for Kentucky to have. That’s the only downside when a mid-30s assistant proves to be a home run hire.
If Kentucky can dodge this seemingly last coaching carousel bullet in 2022, it’ll be better for it. It’ll be positioned to once again have one of the SEC’s better offenses with Coen running the show.
Either way, it’s like Taylor said. Coen’s time is coming.
Kentucky had better be ready for it.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
