Liam Coen Offense: Cadence, Play-Action, Advanced Stats

The Kentucky Wildcats have made it through practice No. 4 this spring and with every passing moment, more intel is arriving regarding the new offense. Liam Coen met with the media for a second time since the start of spring ball and peeled back the curtain just a bit to show what UK might look like this fall.

After one week, we know how cadence can alter the tempo, play-action game doesn’t have to be under center and the important stats the new play-caller values while the team is going through the offensive install.

Many things are changing with the offense.

Cadence

A football cadence essentially means that a quarterback will use words or specific phrases with a certain rhythm to snap the ball. Quarterbacks will often switch up the tempo of these calls to act as an audible or to just give the defense a fake look. Aaron Rodgers is the king of this in the NFL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTa0kSMhPmA

These hard counts can give the offense more time to diagnose a defense and come up with the best method of operation on a play-by-play basis. After using mostly silent or body signal counts previously, Kentucky will be moving to a cadence to help attack defenses weekly.

“Cadence is a weapon, just like plays are,” Coen told the media. “Personnel’s a weapon, plays are weapons, cadence is a weapon. We need to be able to use it to our advantage.”

The new offensive coordinator is bringing an NFL mindset to Kentucky and cadence is a perfect example of that. On the field, expect plenty of fake dummy counts to try to confuse the defense into giving away a run fit or coverage scheme. From there, Kentucky could look to the sideline and change a play at a moment’s notice.

The changing of a cadence’s rhythm can also help negate a pass rush.

“We have to be able to mix our cadence,” said Coen. “Go on verbal, nonverbal. That’s the biggest thing. In and out of the huddle fast, sprint to the line, snap the ball, slow it down. Just because we’re in a huddle-based system does not mean we can’t play with tempo.”

Offenses don’t need to be full-out hurry up, no-huddle to take advantage of tempo. Kentucky can use quick alignment to help them get a read on defense so they can call the best plays possible. Cadence is a huge part of that and will be utilized in 2021.

Pistol Play-Action

Before spring ball began, Coen went on the radio to talk with Tom Leach about the new offense. One of the topics discussed was just how much the Wildcats would get under center after being a strict shotgun snap operation during the Mark Stoops era. Kentucky would take traditional snaps some but expect plenty of shotgun action.

“We were so much under center in Los Angeles and we would like to be that here, but a lot of these quarterbacks have never taken a snap under center before really in games,” said Coen. “Talking to Joey Gatewood, he’s never taken a snap under center in a game ever, not even in Pop Warner or in high school. They’ve been doing it here at Kentucky in practice over the last couple years, so they’ve gotten some reps at it.”

Since the beginning, Coen has talked about marrying the run and the passing game together to build the best offense possible. That means becoming efficient in the play-action game. Can you do it out of the pistol formation, which is essentially taking the snaps from 3-4 yards rather than the typical seven yards in shotgun?

“I don’t see the pistol as a spread offense formation,” said Coen. “I see that as under center, essentially. That’s how the defense views it when they really look at it. The pistol gives you the opportunity to run some zone read from the quarterback position which does create some issues for the defense.”

Coen also elaborated on the offense Steve Sarkisian built at Alabama last season where the Crimson Tide used a lot of play-action concepts out of the pistol.

Bama uses a jet sweep motion layered with a fake handoff and pulling guard from the backside. Those are three things that the inside linebackers and safeties must pay attention to within the first two seconds of the play. The play-fake freezes the defense and the quarterback can hit the tight end on the crosser or the X receiver in the condensed formation on a deep post if the safety bites on one of the run actions.

Due to the steps taken in some wide zone runs or on other pre-snap motions, the offense can create a good enough play-fake where play-action can still be very effective. These are NFL concepts that just don’t need to happen under center.

After not using it much at all in the past, expect the play-action game to be heavily involved in the offense moving forward.

Stats are always used

When asked about what stats Coen values in today’s game, the offensive coordinator told a quick “stats are for losers” story regarding Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay. While other factors when building an offense may be more important, there is always quality information football teams can gather from data.

“It’s about efficiency in the run game on first and second down,” Coen told the media. “Efficiency in the play [action] pass and keepers on first and second down. Then what can we do on third down in order to move the chains to give our kid’s a chance. To be able to create different formations, motions, and shifts to give ourselves an opportunity on third down and in the red [zone] area.

That efficiency coaches are looking for is an advanced stat term known as success rate. This measures if an offense is staying ahead of the chains by gaining 50% on the yardage needed on first down, 70% of the yardage needed on second, and 100% of the yardage needed on third and fourth down. Kentucky has had success at this in the past and the hope is Chris Rodriguez Jr. helps provide this efficiency running behind a strong offensive line every week.

However, that is only one part. It is hard to get a hit every time at the plate and eventually an offense needs to hit on some home runs. The passing game has been unable to provide that in the last two seasons and it’s one of the reasons Coen was brought to town. Terry Wilson had a big play rate of just 10.15% in the passing game last year while some in the SEC doubled that number.

Coen is monitoring the rate of producing chunk pass plays this spring and creating them in the fall will determine just how successful this offense will be.

“I’m worried about efficiency in the run game, explosive plays in the pass game,” said Coen.