"Seamless Transition," Kentucky Offense is Business as Usual with Rich Scangarello

Kentucky’s offense made a change at the top of the chain of command, but the foundation laid in 2021 remains intact. Rich Scangarello is replacing Liam Coen as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. The former 49ers QB coach will be joined by another former San Francisco assistant, offensive line coach Zach Yenser. The unexpected coaching changes produced a pleasant surprise.

An Abundance of Football Knowledge

Yenser was picked to succeed Eric Wolford a few weeks before Stoops knew he needed an offensive coordinator. When Yenser mentioned the open position to his old colleague, Scangarello’s ears perked up. Stoops asked Yenser what he thought about the opportunity.

“If you have a chance to hire Rich Scangarello, you go to do whatever you can to hire that guy because he’s a really, really good football coach,” Yenser told Stoops.

Once Stoops, Will Levis and a host of others met with Scangarello, it confirmed Yenser was shooting them straight.

“It doesn’t take young long when you’re in a meeting with Rich and you see the knowledge that’s coming out of there. It’s pretty remarkable,” Stoops said Tuesday morning. “You realize real quick he’s forgotten more football than most of us know.”

Things moved quickly. With Yenser already on board, Scangarello was sold on UK and a deal was done in a matter of days.

Coen, Scangarello “Speak the Same Language”

As Freddie Maggard shared, continuity was key when searching for a new play-caller. Spring practice begins next week. The Wildcats could not afford to spend the entire spring season figuring out a new playbook. That happened last year and Stoops did not even know if they could complete a snap under center after 15 practices. When Scangarello steps onto the practice field next Tuesday, the offense will be ready to run at full speed.

“They speak the same language,” Stoops said. “There’s some differences but it’ll be easy carry-over. The big thing is — we do that all the time anyway. It’s the same way defensively. You keep the same system, but there’s new wrinkles, new twists. It’ll be the same with the offense, very pleased. I think it’ll be a seamless transition.”

Stoops’ players will not spend the next weeks and months learning new names for plays and formations. Instead, Scangarello will adapt his terminology to what the Wildcats already have in place.

“Obviously, the 49ers and the Rams are different, but there’s enough that carries over. It’s easier for our coaches to adapt to the terminology than for all of our players to learn new things,” said Stoops.

Offensive Flexibility Under Scangarello

Not only will the systems mirror one another, Scangarello shares a similar philosophy to Coen. Instead of forcing the players to fit into the system, it’s his job to adjust the system to fit the players’ needs. It’s all about putting the Wildcats in a position to be able to make plays.

“The last thing I would ever want to do is bog down the players by reinventing the wheel,” said Scangarello. “They have a great foundation and there’s some stuff that like anything, you want to put your own spin on it or it’s going to look how you see it and want to call it. But ultimately, it comes down to — my job is evaluating the players, the types of players they are, their talents and help putting them in a position to be successful. If we do that, we’ll be the best offense we can be. We’ll score some points, we’ll be explosive and we’ll be what we want to be.”

Fifteen months ago Liam Coen sold Mark Stoops on the McVay-Shanahan pro-style system. Instead of leaning into the college spread, it’s all about “marrying the run with the pass.” Even though there is a new guy calling the shots, the cornerstone of Mark Stoops’ offense is balance.

“To have a head coach in college football say ‘I want balance, I want to play a little under center. These things are important to me.’ That belief is why I am here,” said the new Kentucky offensive coordinator. “Finding a way to incorporate the style of players we have in our scheme, and what that looks like: Is it run heavy or not? We were designed that way in San Francisco and that’s the style we played. But in the end it’s about scoring points, it’s points per possession and making sure you do a good job taking care of the football when you have it. What we look like on the field … I can’t answer that yet. But we have the flexibility to be what we want within our system.”