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Michael DiRocco
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If it is potential to find out when Liam Coen first began pondering like a coach, it would date again to the autumn of 1989.
Coen was an everyday at his father’s practices when Tim Coen was the top coach at South Kingstown Excessive Faculty in Wakefield, Rhode Island. To maintain his son occupied throughout after-practice conferences with the coaches, Tim let Liam doodle on the chalkboard.
“One of many coaches appeared down and stated, ‘Have a look at that,'” Tim Coen stated. “And we glance, and on the time we had been operating the wishbone once I first began, [Liam] drew 11 guys in a wishbone formation precisely the place they had been speculated to be.
“It was nice.”
Liam Coen was simply 3 years previous on the time, and it was one of many first indicators that he was extremely occupied with soccer.
Now the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ first-time head coach, Coen has all the time been a soccer junkie. As a child, he watched his dad’s recreation movies as an alternative of cartoons and diagrammed performs as an alternative of constructing with Legos. Cover and search? He’d reasonably work on diving catches along with his dad.
“That may go on and on,” Tim Coen stated. “He was like that golden retriever that you just throw the ball to that does not cease.”
These observe days translated into Liam being named Rhode Island’s 2003 Gatorade Participant of the 12 months at La Salle Academy, setting the profession information for passing yards (11,031) and passing touchdowns (90) at UMass Amherst, and embarking on a 15-year teaching profession that features stops at UMass, the College of Kentucky, the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Whereas the 39-year-old has jumped from teaching job to teaching job — by no means spending greater than three consecutive seasons at any cease — he has developed a status as one of many shiny offensive minds to come back from the Sean McVay teaching tree. Now he is prepared to ascertain his personal crew playbook and tradition with the Jaguars utilizing what he has discovered alongside the way in which.
“He is simply a type of guys that will get it,” Tim Coen stated. “He was a frontrunner and a wise quarterback. He knew why we had been operating performs. It wasn’t like he simply knew the play. He knew the aim of it.”
LIAM COEN’S FIRST foray into the NFL was unofficial, however it was sufficient to get him targeted on an NFL head teaching job.
Mark Whipple had been UMass’ coach from 1998 to 2003 and recruited Coen, however Whipple left UMass to grow to be the quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier than Coen arrived.
Seven years later, Whipple was the quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns, and Coen — who had stored in contact — requested if he may go to and see what it was like to educate within the NFL.
Whipple took Coen to the Browns facility over a three-day go to and let him sit in on conferences and see how the Browns ran their offseason program. Coen liked it, Whipple stated.
“He was only a employee [and] needed to be taught in regards to the NFL and issues of that nature,” Whipple stated. “I let him come into conferences and the whole lot else that spring, and it form of catapulted him.”
Whipple had been following Coen’s profession — quarterbacks coach at Brown in 2010, passing recreation coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Rhode Island in 2011, and quarterbacks coach at Brown once more in 2012-13. And when UMass rehired Whipple in 2014, he employed Coen to grow to be the Minutemen’s go recreation coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Coen’s capability to show the offense and work with the quarterbacks impressed Whipple.
“I coached [six seasons] within the NFL and so we used stuff that I discovered from Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid within the go recreation,” Whipple stated. “He [Coen] simply dealt with the quarterback room very well. I did not actually go in there and coach. I referred to as the performs, however he dealt with that state of affairs and taught [QB Blake Frohnapfel] the offense and simply did a extremely, actually good job.”
Whipple stated the gamers responded effectively to Coen due to his understanding of various offenses, his background as a quarterback, his simple method and his genuineness.
“He is sincere, to start with,” Whipple stated. “After which gamers can really feel that good deal with of stability in between the run and the go, and he believes in each. And I believe he stays on a fair keel. However I simply suppose he is a listener. He listened to his dad. He is listened to all of the folks he is labored with and brought issues from all of them.”
WHEN RAMS COACH McVay was in search of an assistant receivers coach so as to add to his employees in 2018, Rams tight ends coach Shane Waldron urged him to name the energetic, shiny younger coach he labored with whereas he was the offensive line coach at UMass in 2014-15.
McVay listened, met with Coen and employed him to assist out receivers coach Eric Yarber. It did not take lengthy earlier than McVay was impressed, and he stopped by Coen’s workplace one night to inform him that.
“He walks by my workplace, is available in, and he is like, ‘Hey, man, you are doing a fantastic job. I respect you being right here. I am actually completely satisfied you are right here,'” Coen remembered. “Then he was out. I used to be like, ‘Oh, OK. You may be instructed you are doing a great job on this sport.’ As a result of all the opposite locations I might been and the way I might grown up, it is like, you simply do what you are instructed if you’re instructed, and you do not do it as a result of anyone’s saying good job. You do it since you’re a coach, and you have a bit bit extra of a soldier mentality.
“It was only a completely different feeling. You are like, oh, OK, it is OK to inform guys, ‘Hey, man, I really like you.’ It is OK to open up and be really a human being, too. And in order that was all the time the tradition the place you felt like, all proper, I’ve to be at a excessive stage whereas I am right here, however I may be myself.”
That caught with Coen all through his three-year tenure with the Rams, with the final season spent because the assistant quarterbacks coach working with Jared Goff. Coen stated that have was “like getting my Ph.D. in teaching” as a result of he discovered a brand new approach of being a frontrunner from McVay.
“Once I walked into that constructing in 2018, I had by no means felt something like that earlier than,” Coen stated. “Simply the continuity, the positivity … like, ‘Man, how are you?’ It really actually meant one thing. I simply felt like [McVay] stepped in that constructing, he was actually himself each single day.
“… If everyone does that, good issues usually occur, and also you construct good relationships, and that is what he is all the time performed.”
McVay additionally bolstered what Coen discovered from his father and Whipple in regards to the significance of an offensive system that creates confusion.
“I get to the Rams and I hear the precise phrase of the phantasm of complexity: Similar performs, however we’re making them simply look completely different [by using different formations, motions and misdirection],” Coen stated.
He left the Rams in 2022 to take a playcalling job on the College of Kentucky. However he returned to Los Angeles one season later as a result of McVay referred to as once more and requested him to exchange Kevin O’Connell — who was employed because the Minnesota Vikings‘ head coach — as offensive coordinator. Coen has stated that working with McVay once more was a chance he could not go up, though McVay remained the playcaller.
The Rams went 5-12 that season largely as a result of accidents to quarterback Matthew Stafford, receiver Cooper Kupp and defensive deal with Aaron Donald. 4 quarterbacks began video games for the Rams in 2022, together with Baker Mayfield, who was claimed off waivers from the Carolina Panthers in December.
“Liam and I went via what was, I’ve talked about it earlier than, essentially the most difficult 12 months that I’ve ever had in teaching,” McVay stated. “And on the time it was not enjoyable, however I believe we might each say a lot development occurred for us each having to undergo some actually arduous stuff … I do know that was actually arduous on him, and I may have performed a significantly better job of being the chief that our crew however [also] he deserved because the offensive coordinator.
“We’re rather a lot nearer for having gone via it. It made us each stronger.”
IN JANUARY 2024, Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles wanted a substitute for offensive coordinator Dave Canales, whom Carolina had employed as its head coach. After interviewing seven candidates, he selected Coen, partly due to his earlier relationship with Mayfield whereas they had been with the Rams — but additionally due to Coen’s expertise working with McVay.
Bowles was impressed with how thorough Coen was in explaining the offense he needed to run and the way he would adapt if it wasn’t working.
“It is not simply [scheme],” Bowles stated at Coen’s introductory information convention. “All people’s going to have a scheme coming in. It is not the scheme that draws you to him. It is understanding your scheme, after which if somebody stops it, then what do you do? Are you able to suppose after that?
“And may you slot in as effectively with the gamers and the coaches and the tradition we’ve on our crew? And that takes some time to do. Until you undergo fairly a couple of guys, you are not going to actually know. You may guess, however when you undergo all that, and as soon as I went via that with Liam, I knew he was the fitting match, so it was very simple to rent him.”
Coen helped Mayfield put collectively the most effective season of his profession — 71.4% completions and 41 TD passes — and improved the Bucs’ floor recreation from the worst within the NFL to among the finest with assist from a pair of rookies in middle Graham Barton and operating again Bucky Irving. Tampa completed fourth within the NFL in dashing (149.2 yards per recreation) one season after ending final (88.8).
Earlier than the 2024 season even started, Mayfield was praising Coen’s scheme, notably the liberty and choices it gives the quarterback on the line of scrimmage. Mayfield stated throughout coaching camp he by no means felt handcuffed on the line of scrimmage and all the time had a solution to what the protection was displaying.
“Liam taught the sport of soccer to all of our offensive guys and he helped me out tremendously with pre-snap changes and having the ability to get rid of and course of info rapidly,” Mayfield stated. “And so Trevor [Lawrence is] going to have a man that is actually going to develop into him and lean into that and assist him out. And never simply on the sector however off the sector.”
Lawrence stated the identical factor after the Jaguars’ first organized crew exercise on Might 19.
“I actually like [that the offense] has quite a lot of solutions,” he stated. “It is nice. I imply, it places rather a lot on the gamers. You need to know your stuff, however it provides you all of the solutions. You do not really feel such as you’re caught in a play that is not arrange for achievement.
“It is undoubtedly in contrast to any system that I’ve discovered earlier than.”
Jaguars middle Robert Hainsey, who was a backup in Tampa Bay final season, favored the way in which Coen was prepared to adapt to what the Bucs did effectively.
“One factor he does very well is he focuses on our strengths as gamers,” Hainsey stated.
“I believe that is an enormous attribute for a soccer coach to have. You need to have the ability to take heed to your gamers and put them in the most effective place to win.”
NOW IN HIS first alternative as a head coach, Coen is aware of how necessary establishing a tradition is — particularly on a crew that was missing it beforehand. It is why he is utilizing a 2010 College of California-Berkeley analysis examine to assist him do it.
A pair of scientists studied each crew within the NBA over the course of the 2008-09 season and decided that the groups that had gamers who touched one another essentially the most — high-fives, pats on the again, hugs, and so on. — gained essentially the most.
Coen referred to as it the ability of contact and says it’s a very important a part of crew chemistry.
“You simply have a look at connection, and these days connection is so arduous to truly create as a result of a lot of our lives are on a cellphone,” Coen stated. “Simply having interpersonal conversations and likewise, simply the previous fist bump, the high-five, the chest bump — that helps convey folks collectively.
“Like as a child if you had been taught to have fun. What did that seem like? That is what we’re finally attempting to get to, is bringing the crew collectively, bringing the teaching employees collectively to do one thing that finally, we have by no means performed earlier than.”
Since making the postseason in 4 consecutive seasons from 1996 to 1999, the Jaguars have had pockets of success — playoff appearances in 2005, 2007, 2017 and 2022 and back-to-back successful seasons twice (2004-05 and 2022-23) — however nothing sustained. Solely the Cleveland Browns (17) have had extra seasons with double-digit losses than the Jaguars (15) because the 2000 season started.
Forward of the 2025 season, Coen’s priorities on the sector are implementing his offense, bettering the run recreation and getting Lawrence to play at a constantly excessive stage. If the brand new head coach makes use of what he has discovered since he was 3 years previous, there is no purpose the Jaguars cannot return to competing for the playoffs.
“[Coen is a] actually sensible man, is aware of tips on how to talk, has an effective way about himself with the gamers,” O’Connell stated. “And I believe that is simply going to transition to him on this position. And as I’ve instructed him, it does not actually matter how anyone else has performed it, guys he is been round, whether or not it is Sean, myself, Todd [Bowles].
“He is acquired to go be himself and do it his approach, and he’ll have quite a lot of success if he does that.”