Christmas comes early for Kentucky fans with Liam Coen returning
Kentucky fans can thoroughly enjoy the holiday season, as Liam Coen is coming back!
Liam Coen is expected to leave the Los Angeles Rams to return to Lexington and be the Kentucky Wildcats offensive coordinator once again.
With Rich Scangarello not working out in his one year coordinating the ‘Cats offense, the return of Coen could not have come at a better time. Coen may have returned to Sean McVay’s Rams staff to be their offensive coordinator, replacing Kevin O’Connell who left to be the Minnesota Vikings head coach. However, it has hit the fan in Los Angeles big time, and Coen leaving is not surprising.
While the Rams still have Sean McVay as the head coach, this is incredibly fantastic news for UK!
Liam Coen to leave the Los Angeles Rams to coordinate Kentucky offense again
Though some may be shocked for Coen to essentially renege on his NFL promotion of sorts, many feel the Rams are a sinking ship. The defending Super Bowl champions are probably not making the NFC playoffs, despite stunning the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday Night Football with Baker Mayfield as their temporary starting quarterback. As for Kentucky, the Wildcats are still excellent.
Even if Will Levis has decided to turn pro, UK is in great hands for several reasons. Kentucky still has Mark Stoops as its generational head coach. The Wildcats are still recruiting at a very high level, particularly in the Ohio region. Plus, Coen has shown he can elevate the passing game far beyond the typical ground-and-pound, ball-control approach commonplace for Stoops’ program.
Factor in Tennessee losing offensive coordinator Alex Golesh to the South Florida job, and potentially Georgia losing its offensive coordinator Todd Monken to the Purdue job or an NFL coordinator gig, Coen’s return makes the ‘Cats strong and powerful. It may take another year or two, but Kentucky can get back to being a 10-win program with Coen running the UK offense.
Although it remains to be seen if Kentucky has the upward trajectory of Tennessee under Josh Heupel, or if the Wildcats even have a snowball’s chance of closing the gap on SEC East juggernaut Georgia, this is still a UK program that is ascending and not fading away anytime soon. Coen returning to Lexington shows UK’s commitment to building a contending program around Stoops.
Ultimately, expectations are incredibly high for Coen in Lexington this time around. Big Blue Nation knows where the bar is at and what this offense is capable of with the right play-caller at the helm. Admittedly, losing Levis to the pros certainly puts a damper on this move. However, UK just became one of the best possible landing spots for any quarterback who has hit the transfer portal.
With Coen coming back to Kentucky, the Wildcats may be making a New Year’s Six bowl very soon.
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