The Kentucky Wildcats have hired Los Angeles Rams assistant Liam Coen as their new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
The Rams still have three games left in the 2020 NFL season to safely secure the NFC West. Although their defense has been the biggest reason for their success this year, it is the offense that has served as the focal point of the Sean McVay era.
Despite having just started back in 2017, McVay’s offensive assistants have become quite the commodity elsewhere. It appears another one has been poached from his staff once the season comes to a close.
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops has picked Coen to lead his offense and explained why, via ESPN:
“There’s many different styles that you can go with in today’s day and age with college football,” Stoops said Tuesday in a virtual news conference, “but I also had to go with something that I was comfortable with and could mesh with the good things that we’ve been doing and what we wanted to look like.
“Certainly, you don’t have to look very far to look at L.A.’s offense to know that they are very creative and very innovative with what they’re doing offensively.”
Coen joined the Rams prior to the 2018 campaign as an assistant wide receivers coach. He has since helped coach one of the most productive groups in the NFL with Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp surpassing 1,000 yards over the last two seasons.
Coen was then bumped up to assistant quarterbacks coach leading up to this season and is now accustomed to spending his time with quarterback Jared Goff. While this group has struggled to establish a consistent rhythm, it is still regarded as one of the most innovative offenses in the league under McVay.
It is safe to say that Coen has quite a tall task ahead of him once the 2020 campaign draws to a close. He will be replacing Eddie Gran as coordinator and Darin Hinshaw as quarterbacks after Kentucky averaged just 124.4 yards per game this season.
Coen is now back in the NCAA where his roots as a coach started before making the jump to the NFL with the Rams. It will be interesting to see how he is able to handle calling shots on offense for the Wildcats come next season.
