Every reset has its risk.
Liam Coen is just 35 years old. Kentucky’s new offensive coordinator has never called a play in FBS football. He spent just three years in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams, the first two as assistant wide receivers coach, this past year as assistant quarterbacks coach. His soon-to-be former boss, Sean McVay, calls the shots.
That said, I’m on board. Mark Stoops’ astute hire of the fairly unknown Rhode Island native to be Kentucky football’s new offensive coordinator checks a lot of attractive boxes.
Start with style of play. Stoops said Tuesday that before he began contemplating candidates, he needed a clear idea of what he wanted his offense to look like. That’s not exactly a secret around these parts. Stoops wants a physical attack with a strong running game that complements his defense. The past couple of years, but especially this season, the head coach learned he needs an effective passing game, as well, to make things work.
McVay’s offense is the perfect it. For all of his celebrated creativity in the passing game, McVay’s scheme has a strong foundation in the run game. Much of the Rams’ passing attack comes off play-action or bootlegs set up by the run. He’s also known for running 20 different plays out of one formation, or running the same exact play out of several different formations.
Next box: NFL influence. LSU made it work in 2019 by hiring Joe Brady from the New Orleans Saints to run the Tigers’ offense. Brady had never called a play in FBS football. Yet LSU quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy. Ed Orgeron won a national championship. Bottom line: Every big-time college football players’ No. 1 goal is to make it to the NFL.
Next box: Energy. I’m not saying Stoops purposely targeted a younger coach for his new OC, but it doesn’t hurt. Coen should bring a fresh approach, one that relates both to young players and recruits. It doesn’t hurt that he played quarterback at UMass not that long ago, or that he was part of a young staff with the Rams. McVay, after all, is only 34 years old.
Maybe most important is Coen’s background. He has been around the game his whole life. His father, Tim, was a highly successful Division III coach who gave that up to coach his son in high school at LaSalle Academy in Providence, Rhode Island. (Stoops’ father was a longtime coach who coached his sons, as well.) And now the younger Coen is another branch of what has become the game’s most influential coaching tree.
That tree starts with Mike Shanahan, two-time Super Bowl winning coach with the Denver Broncos who, ironically enough, UK tried to hire back in 1990. Gary Kubiak was Shanahan’s backup quarterback behind John Elway with the Broncos. As head coach of the Houston Texans, Kubiak hired current 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, son of Mike, as well as current Packers’ coach Matt LaFleur.
When Mike Shanahan became head coach of the Washington Redskins in 2010, he hired Kyle Shanahan, LaFleur and a then up-and-coming 24-year-old named Sean McVay. When Kyle became the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator in 2015, he hired LaFleur. When McVay became head coach of the Rams in 2017, he hired away LaFleur, just as Kyle Shanahan became head coach of the 49ers.
With the Rams, McVay also hired an assistant named Shane Waldron, whom he had worked with in Washington under Jay Gruden. And when Waldron was elevated to passing game coordinator in 2018, he convinced McVay to hire Coen, whom he had worked with at UMass in 2014-15.
OK, let’s see. In 2018, McVay’s Rams reached the Super Bowl. In 2019, Shanahan’s 49ers reached the Super Bowl. This year, LaFleur’s Packers are 10-3. McVay’s Rams are 9-4. Kevin Stefanski, whom Kubiak tutored in Minnesota, has the Cleveland Browns at 9-4.
I’m not predicting that kind of success for Kentucky — not right away, anyhow — but let’s just say that in this reset, despite the risk, I think Mark Stoops picked the right button to hit.
