LaRosa's Leftovers: Liam Coen on Wide Receiver Depth, Will Levis Not Hand-Picked QB1

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On the fifth day of Kentucky football practice Mark Stoops brought his offensive coaches and players to speak with the media about the first week of preseason training. You’ve already heard about Michael Drennen and Izayah Cummings, but there are a few things we didn’t get to Tuesday night.

Coen Comfortable with 6-7 Receivers

Kentucky has depth at most positions, with wide receiver being one exception. Searching for reliable targets, Liam Coen said he “feels good” right now about playing six to seven guys. To alleviate the depth problem, he’s enlisting receivers and tight ends to catch more passes. Coen also likes what some of the young receivers have shown early in camp.

“I do feel good about some of the young guys,” Coen said. “They’ve had a pretty solid training camp so far, we just gotta get ’em a little bit more work with the old guys.”

.@CrowdusDekel ran a post 🙌#ForTheTeam 😼🏈 pic.twitter.com/HPa0q3RlBl

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) August 10, 2021

Will Levis Not Hand-Picked Choice

Despite arriving late to Lexington, many prognosticators believe the Penn State transfer will ultimately become QB1 for Kentucky because he was recruited by Liam Coen. That’s not necessarily the case.

“At the end of the day, he came in behind all of those guys because I wasn’t able to do anything with him this spring. Yeah, did I have a relationship and recruit him a little bit out of high school, but that was a couple phone calls. That wasn’t much a true relationship,” Coen said.

“Really, what he’s come out and done is a testament to his work ethic and the type of kid he is and how smart he is and how he prepares. He’s doing a nice job just like those other guys, but whatever — at the end of the day if he’s the guy, he’s going to be because he earned it, not because he was handed it.”

Coen did not get too much into the weeds when discussing each quarterbacks’ progress. Kentucky’s offensive coordinator has seen little things from each passer that shows how they’ve developed a better understanding of the offense since spring practice.

“In the spring these guys were so worried about themselves, and rightfully so, just trying to take a snap and run a run play that they had never done before. You’re starting to see a little bit more overall big picture understanding from the quarterbacks and trying to be even more involved, maybe getting somebody pre-aligned, realigned, getting guys set, little things like that where maybe in the spring we had a little more narrow vision.”

Dare Rosenthal’s Physicality

When Mark Stoops initially sized up Dare Rosenthal, he knew they were getting an exceptional athlete on the offensive line. Kentucky’s head coach was surprised just how nasty Rosenthal plays once he puts on shoulder pads.

“He’s going to be a good player,” Stoops said. “I feel like Dare is very athletic. He looks different in his pads because when he came in, he’s got that length, but you put the pads on and he plays a little bit more physical than maybe when you see him without his pads on. He’s a long guy, very athletic, definitely going to help us.”

Rahsaan Lewis’ Stupid Vertical

Relatively unknown until UK Fan Day, he shocked the BBN with a couple of long, contested receptions during the open practice. Of course, the kid can fly. A little under-sized, he mitigates that problem with out of this world leaping ability. The last time he formally had his vertical leap recorded, the track star jumped 45 inches as a junior in high school. Nuts.