Other than friendship, if you want to understand why it was difficult for Mark Stoops to part ways with Eddie Gran, consider these numbers:
With Gran calling offensive plays for Kentucky from 2016 through 2020, Stoops went 37-26 as UK head coach, 20-22 in SEC games.
Without Gran calling offensive plays for Kentucky from 2013-15, Stoops went 12-24 as UK head coach, 4-20 in SEC games.
Sure, a lot of that disparity is due to the 2-10 UK program Stoops inherited when he was hired before the 2013 season.
But a considerable part of it was also because Gran, in many ways, did good work for Kentucky.
What shapes up as one of the more intriguing UK football seasons of the 21st century so far will kick off Saturday at noon at Kroger Field when Stoops begins his ninth season as top Cat vs. Louisiana Monroe.
The visit by new coach Terry Bowden's Warhawks will mark the first time since the 2015 Kentucky-Louisville regular-season finale that someone other than Gran will direct the offense for Stoops.
Liam Coen, the 35-year-old former Los Angeles Rams assistant quarterbacks coach, will debut as the Wildcats' offensive coordinator vs. ULM.
In his five seasons as Kentucky offensive coordinator, Gran developed the Kentucky offense into a powerful rushing force.
UK's run-heavy attack, fueled by stars such as Benny Snell and (the read-option quarterback version of) Lynn Bowden, was in many ways the perfect complement to the rock-ribbed defense Stoops eventually built.
Yet while UK's running game thrived under Gran and co-offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw, the Cats' passing numbers shriveled.
In 2016, the first season after Gran and Hinshaw came to Lexington from the University of Cincinnati, Kentucky had 11 touchdown passes of 30 yards or more.
Over the four seasons since, UK has had a combined nine TD throws of 30 yards or more — and had none in the entire 2020 season.
Having risen from a traditional SEC bottom dweller solidly into the middle of the league in the last five years, it's possible UK had gone as high as it could without a viable passing threat.
Still, it was a bold step for Stoops to part ways with Gran, given the latter's obvious significance to Kentucky's current five-year bowl streak.
What makes the transition even more fascinating is that Coen is something of a man of mystery.
The former University of Massachusetts quarterback spent 2016 and 2017 as the offensive coordinator at Maine. On Sean McVay's staff with the Rams, Coen worked two seasons as the assistant wide receivers coach and one as the assistant quarterbacks coach.
That is not necessarily a resume that screams "SEC offensive coordinator."
Yet after Joe Brady came from the NFL and found coaching acclaim running the offense for LSU's 2019 national championship team, the barrier of entry for young coaches leaving pro football to call plays in the SEC has lowered.
In Coen's dealings with the media since arriving in Lexington, he has come across as knowledgeable and engaging.
Stoops reports that's more or less what he's observed behind the scenes from his new OC, too.
"One thing, I appreciate ... the way (Coen) relates with the players," Stoops said Monday at his first weekly news conference of 2021. "I really like his energy. He's very believable, very positive. The players relate to him. And that breeds confidence within the offensive room."
Job One for Coen is to preserve the potent running game Gran bequeathed him. Job One A is to build a complementary passing attack that works off of UK's rushing prowess.
With the Rams, McVay's offense is based on running rushing and passing plays out of formations that look identical to opposing defenses at inception.
A Rhode Island native, Coen is betting on another New Englander, Connecticut product Will Levis, as the guy who can revive the Kentucky passing attack as quarterback.
Levis, a transfer from Penn State, has a cannon. If the long touchdown pass does not return to the UK offense in a meaningful way in 2021, it will not be because the Wildcats' starting QB lacks arm strength.
It will be fascinating how much passing Stoops signs off on with the new Kentucky offense.
For 99 games, Stoops (49-50 as UK coach) has been on the Wildcats sidelines. In only eight of those contests has a Kentucky quarterback thrown for more than 300 yards — Patrick Towles (five times), Stephen Johnson (twice) and Drew Barker (once).
UK has not had a QB throw for 300 yards in a contest since Johnson outdueled Louisville star Lamar Jackson in the final regular-season game of 2016.
Yet even as Kentucky's passing numbers began to wither, its win-loss marks improved.
That's why it was a gutty move by Stoops to change the director of Kentucky's offense at a time when the Wildcats program was, by the historical standards of UK football, faring well.
