Liam Coen evaluates Kentucky offense in latest scrimmage

Liam Coen is supposed to save Kentucky’s offense again with his return to Lexington this offseason. Even so, it’s clear that the Wildcats still have some things to work at on that side of the football to be where he’d like them to be.

Coen commented on the offense’s performance from their first scrimmage on Saturday during media today. He said their ball movement up the field was great but that, by the end, they weren’t doing what they needed to do in the redzone to take their three to six points rather than zero.

“I liked how we moved the ball. I just didn’t like how we finished,” Coen said. “You get down there on the first drive and, on second down, threw, like, a shallow concept to Dane (Key). (Devin Leary) was a little quick on it, bypassed it. We go to third down. That’s the one that’s to Tayvion (Robinson) kind of on the side and he pulled him away. We make that play? We’re in the endzone.

“You go down bang, bang, bang and kick a field goal, are you upset? No. You say, ‘Hey, let’s go! We got points’. But, instead, we worked the situation, went for it on fourth down, don’t get it, and we’re a little deflated,” explained Coen. “We kept going down the field, down the field and then just missed a couple things in the redzone offensively that, ultimately, is the difference between touchdowns and field goals. That was a little disappointing.”

Coen does realize that some of that was because of his specific play-calling. He admitted that Kentucky is passing more at the moment to build those connections while also not working their rushers too hard. However, that doesn’t fully excuse the lack of efficiency on those calls either when they’re trying to throw it in for scores.

“I threw it more. I wasn’t running the ball much in this first scrimmage. We’re trying to keep the backs clean, want to work on the pass game. Obviously, the quarterbacks aren’t truly live so you can kind of push things down the field,” said Coen. “We threw it probably a lot more than I would normally in the redzone. We were just trying to work some of our redzone pass game.

“In the red area, things happen fast. Things happen fast so, from a quarterback standpoint, your reads, your progressions? They’ve all got to be a little bit faster down there,” Coen added. “Those are just some things we got cleaned up and can work on.”

When it comes to offense, Coen has been a guru and outlier for Kentucky in Mark Stoops’ tenure. That’s why they’re going to defer to him in order to clean things up with that unit as he sees fit, especially when it comes to finishing great drives.

“I was pleased with the guys up and down the field moving it. And then it got a little sloppy at the end which I wasn’t too pleased with,” Coen said.