Umass football experience helped prepare Liam Coen to be NFL coach
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Umass football experience helped prepare Liam Coen to be NFL coach

Long before Liam Coen was ready to play football, he had plans to train it.

At the end of an Umass career defined by Gaudy Quarterback statistics and big victory totals, Coen had hoped to get a shot at the NFL. He knew the odds were against him. He was a quarterback at the championship level, which was not so big, not very mobile and played a position where the guard lists were limited.

His hope was that someone would give him a chance and that he could show off his elite football IQ enough to stay. But he knew about that chance never came – and it didn’t – that he planned to put his lifetime value of football knowledge to work on the side line.

Liam Coen always planned to play as long as he could and then follow his father’s coaching footsteps. Tim Coen, who trained at Salve Regina and La Salle Academy, likes to tell stories about his son who maps games with chalk before Liam turned 5.

An NFL camp invitation may have helped the coen to make contacts early in the process. But while he saw his roommate Victor Cruz become a sensation overnight with Giants, Coen Arena Fotboll played shortly before he traded his clothing for a clipboard.

After sixteen years and 11 assistant coaches and coordinator gigs along the way, Coen, 39, is the head coach of Jacksonville Jaguars.

“I am pumped that Liam accepts the challenge and opportunity to build the winner that Jaguar’s fans and partners completely deserve,” said Jaguar’s owner Shad Kahn in a team statement. “I know our players feel the same.”

Khan was just the latest who was happy to have Coen on his side.

Former Umass coach Don Brown said that Coen had an instinct for leadership and cultural building even as a player. After he took over as the starter in the third match in his beginner season in Amherst, contacted Coen Brown, who was in his first season as the minute coach.

The 19-year-old Quarterbacken knew that Brown was widely regarded as a defensive coach. Even as head coach, he was still the game call and focused on that side of the ball. To eliminate any questions about unit within the team, Coen had a simple proposal.

“He said:” Coach, if it’s ok, I want to get off the field with you after the games so people know that even if you are a defensive head coach, you and I are tied at the hip, “reminded Brown.” I thought that it was really mature from his side. No matter what happened. He would always wait for me

During the rest of that season and the three that followed, Coen and Brown went off the field together.

Even after both had left the Umass field for the last time together in 2008, they stayed in contact.

“I knew the guy was on a trip. He is just a bright guy and loved football, Brown said. “His intangible assets were solid. You were never worried about his judgment or how he would carry himself in front of the team.

“He’s a special guy. His success is not a surprise, Brown continued. “He’s a solid guy, a solid ball coach. He just gets it up. Good things are forward safe. “

Suitably, Coen’s coaching career began on his original Rhode Island where he lubricated two stints as Brown University’s Quarterback’s coach about a year at URI. He then went back to Umass for two seasons with Mark Whipple as the Pass Game Coordinator & Quarterback’s coach.

At the end of its first stint with the minute, Whipple Coen recruited to play on Umass, but left to become an assistant coach job with Pittsburgh Steelers before he could train him. But they also stopped contact when Whipple moved around the NFL.

When Coen was an assistant at Brown, he visited Whipple, who trained Cleveland Brown’s quarterbacks and saw practicing, absorb everything he could.

“That’s when I knew he would have a bright future,” Whipple said. “He was in our quarterback room and in the field. His love for the game really shone through. When I went back to Umass, I hired him right away. “

Liam Coen

New Jaguars coach Liam Coen during his stint as Umass assistant coach. (Republican Filfoto)MassSlive Filfoto

Coen spent two seasons on the Umass staff in Whipple’s second stint on Umass before Maine hired him as his offensive coordinatorGives him a chance to call games for the first time.

After a season with Black Bears, he first accepted a job at Holy Cross, but before he started, he got a chance to interview with Sean McVay to be Rams Assistant Wide Receivator. The move from Orono to Los Angeles changed life. In addition to the weather improvement, he jumped from the Colonial Athletic Association to work in the NFL and one of the league’s brightest young coaches.

It quickly tracked his career. At the end of year 1 he trained against the patriots and his idol Tom Brady in Super Bowl. After year 2, he was promoted to assistant Quarterback’s coach.

From there he bounced back and forth between the frames And the University of Kentucky and raised their profile every time. A chance to be a head coach seemed inevitable. The question was whether Coen’s first crack as head coach would be in the NFL or College football.

The 2024 season proved to be critical. During his first year as the offensive coordinator of Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he proved that he could thrive in the NFL away from McVay. He helped Baker Mayfield to have the best season in his career when Tampa won NFC South. The crime ended in the top five on lap per match (399.6), points (29.5), passed farms per match (250.4) and rushing farms per match (149.2).

In a league that values ​​young offensive innovators, Coen was suddenly a commodity. He initially turned Jacksonville to return to Tampa with a new contract as NFL’s highest paid coordinator. But when Jacksonville fired the head of Trent Baalke on Thursday to give Coen the ability to find a human resources manager, he would be comfortable with, He was interested. In the middle of the afternoon on Friday, they officially reached a deal.

“Becoming a head coach for Jacksonville Jaguars is an opportunity during life, and one that I will run with to introduce a championship culture and win tradition here in Duval,” said Coen in a statement. “This does not happen without support and opportunities that my family and I have received throughout my career, especially during the last season in Tampa Bay.”

Whipple, who gave him one of these opportunities and trained under Bill Cowher, Andy Reid Pat Shurmur in the NFL, thought Coen was ready for the job.

“He is smart and he has taken things he has learned,” Whipple said. “He has worked hard. He deserves it. “

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