Kentucky needs Liam Coen to score points and fix QB recruiting

“We’re putting the band back together.”

Mark Stoops was very much a Jake Blues when the third offensive coordinator search in a third consecutive offseason began on Nov. 29 when Rich Scangarello was relieved of his duties. Despite some early speculation about where this search could go, Stoops chose familiarity as soon as a change was made.

Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Liam Coen emerged as the clear top target, and Kentucky stayed locked in on their top option for a long 10 days before reportedly agreeing to terms on Friday. After stepping away just before spring football started in 2022, Coen will be returning to Lexington just 10 months later.

Now we need to dive in on the task at hand for the former UMass quarterback as he returns to the SEC.

Scoring points has been difficult

Mark Stoops has been at Kentucky for 10 years and has done many good things. The former Florida State defensive coordinator has built a strong defensive culture in Lexington that produces a top-40 unit almost every year now. Twice in the last five years, Kentucky has had a top-15 defense. They’ve just been unable to pair it with a good offense.

Through the decade, we’ve only seen the offense reach the 30-points-per-game threshold twice. The first happened with Eddie Gran in 2016 when Kentucky transitioned their offensive approach to run-heavy as both Benny Snell Jr. and Boom Williams rushed for over 1,000 yards and complemented it with a deep shot play passing game.

But things were never that good again under Gran. The former Cincinnati offensive coordinator was fired following the 2020 season.

Liam Coen arrived from the NFL in 2021 and immediately gave Kentucky its best offense of the Stoops era. The Wildcats set highs in points (32.3), yards per play (6.4), and success rate (51.1%). Kentucky had a legitimate top-25 offense for the first time since 2007. But the success was short-lived.

Sean McVay came calling after the Minnesota Vikings stole offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell. Coen became the Rams offensive coordinator after one season away, but that was another short-lived stay. Coen is now back in Lexington and will be tasked with fixing a Kentucky offense that took a significant step back in 2022.

Despite having a first-round talent at quarterback, a program great at tailback, and a plethora of talent at both tight end and wide receiver, Kentucky simply could not score points under Scangarello. The Cats finished the season averaging 22.1 points per game which is their lowest total since 2013 when you throw out the COVID-19 season. The Wildcats were woeful at finishing drives (No. 105 in red zone touchdown percentage), posted their lowest yards per rush average of the Stoops era (3.3), and were awful at preventing negative plays (No. 106 in tackles for loss allowed).

The offense has been a consistent problem under Stoops as scoring has been difficult. Coen produced Kentucky’s best offense in over a decade and had a unit that had great efficiency despite having a target monster at wide receiver and a first-time starting quarterback.

Kentucky is banking on Coen 2.0 to produce some similar results and help get this program out of an offensive funk that might be preventing the Wildcats from truly competing with some of the big boys in the SEC and taking that proverbial next step.

Part of the problem is talent acquisition

Players over plays. Quite often, this game can be very simple.

Kentucky’s offensive issues can be directly tied to the quarterback position. The Wildcats are on a run of seven consecutive seasons of having a transfer start at quarterback. A high school recruit that signed with UK hasn’t started full-time for the Wildcats since Drew Barker entered the 2016 season as QB1.

That is a very inefficient way to run a college football offense.

The program has had multiple misses in QB recruiting with late flips and players that were unable to develop in Lexington. Liam Coen was brought on to help fix the problem but was gone in just a year. That has created a significant hole.

Kentucky does not have a high school quarterback in the class of 2023 and is behind in the class of 2024 with another coaching change. The Wildcats are going to hit the transfer portal to find another starter at the sport’s most important position in the coming weeks, but the high school recruiting must be fixed.

It’s a very dangerous game to go portal fishing for a quarterback. The best method is going to be recruiting one out of high school and developing him in your own system. Kentucky has struggled to do that for a long time. Coen is now tasked with fixing this problem that has plagued the program.

Everyone will immediately focus on the results on Saturdays in the fall, but the biggest problem Coen can solve is by fixing Kentucky’s high school quarterback recruiting. It must improve, and it must improve fast.

The moves have been made

This was a critical offseason for Kentucky football. The Wildcats ruined a golden opportunity in 2021 and now face a future in the SEC that will likely involve nine conference games, no divisions, and two more blue-blood programs rotating on and off the schedule. Things are not getting easier.

The latest contract extension and raise were scoffed at by many after Kentucky’s home loss to Vanderbilt, but it was needed. Kentucky is sitting at the big boys table in college football entering an unknown world that includes NIL and unrestricted free agency. Stability is required now more than ever.

Liam Coen will help provide that.

The offensive coordinator is familiar with Kentucky’s personnel and knows the recipe for how to win games in Lexington. Mark Stoops is the leader of the program and he is now been locked in by the university administration to help guide the Wildcats to this new world of college football. Now he gets to do it with the best play-caller — on both offense and defense — that he’s employed during his head coaching career.

Kentucky has Brad White locked up for the time being on defense, and now Coen can come back to provide some instant results but, more importantly, stability on offense. Kentucky has made its moves.

Now it’s time to see if the Wildcats can put a special run together after a disappointing 2021 season.