Stoops Drawn In By Newly-Hired Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen’s Style
After a search that lasted for a few weeks, UK announced Tuesday that Liam Coen has been named the Kentucky football offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
UK Head Coach Mark Stoops said in a statement provided in the press release that he was struck by Coen’s football knowledge and style by which his offense plays.
“I am very impressed with Liam’s depth of knowledge and detail of coaching that he has obtained as an NFL and college coach,” Stoops said. “He will bring an exciting style of football, attacking all areas of the field, a style that will be exciting for players to play and for fans to watch.”
Coen spent the last three seasons as an assistant QB coach for the Los Angeles Rams, coaching in the 2018 Super Bowl. He’s been a part of an offense under coach Sean McVay that revolutionized how offense is ran, and Stoops sees his philosophy as an efficiently balanced attack that favors good quarterback play.
“It feels balanced. It feels quarterback friendly. You know if you watch them you see the way they attack you. It’s quarterback friendly with the bootlegs and things of that nature as well and getting the ball out. Obviously, I think it was important also to be creative in getting receivers open out of the bunch sets, the pinch sets, their play-action. They get the ball out on the perimeter with the fly sweeps and the play-action off of it, so it’s very balanced I would say, but also creative in attacking people down the field and scoring points,” he said.
The LA QB coach is the second coordinator in which Mark Stoops has reached out to the NFL ranks (Brad White). With Coen’s success in the Rams’ passing attack through the last few years and his eagerness as a young coach, that NFL experience is crucial as he has been a part of Pro Bowl QB Jared Goff’s development as well as producing two 1,000 yard receivers for the second-consecutive season.
“Bringing people from the NFL (like Brad White) has worked for me before and I really like how detailed he was and obviously had a great handle —the biggest area that needs improvement for us is the quarterbacks and receivers and he has an expertise in both of those areas, worked with both groups in the NFL and that was very attractive to me.”