The end of every NFL season brings major changes to many teams. Some teams even choose to move on from entire coaching staffs. In the Buccaneers’ case, the team overperformed in 2023, winning a third consecutive NFC South title and revitalizing the career of Baker Mayfield. Former Offensive coordinator Dave Canales did so well in 2023 he was hired as the division rival Carolina Panthers’ new Head Coach at the end of January, leaving the Bucs in need of a new OC.
The Bucs interviewed multiple signal callers, including Texans QB Coach Jerrod Johnson, former Browns’ OC Alex Van Pelt, and Detroit Lions’ Wide Receivers’ coach Antwaan Randle El before deciding to hire Liam Coen. Coen enters his second stint NFL Offensive coordinator position with 13 years of back & forth coaching experience at more than a handful of NCAA and NFL organizations.
Who is Liam Coen? Coen is well respected among former colleagues and teammates, beginning his football journey as a four-year starting QB at UMASS, where he set (and still holds) numerous school records including career passing yards and career touchdowns. After college, and one year with the Alabama Vipers Arena Football team, Coen turned his attention to a coaching career that would see him do alot of “ping-ponging” back and forth to a number of teams over the next 13 years.
Brown University would first hire Coen as their Quarterbacks coach, a job he would hold for 3 seasons total (2010, 2012-2013), taking a one year hiatus to serve as Passing game coordinator & QB Coach at Rhode Island University. During the 2014-2015 seasons, Coen returned to UMASS to hold the same positions he had in Rhode Island. Liam always had a niche for developing quarterbacks and designing ways to attack defenses with the passing game. Coen moved on to the University of Maine in 2016 to get his first shot at being a full-time Offensive coordinator, spending 2 seasons calling plays for a squad that went 10-11 over that time.
In 2018, Coen’s big break came as Los Angeles Rams’ coach Sean McVay brought him in as the Assistant Wide receivers coach in 2018-2019 then shifted him back to working with Quarterbacks as Assistant QB coach in 2020. The next season, University of Kentucky hired Coen as OC/Quarterbacks coach, where he coached both the 2021 and 2023 seasons, leaving during the middle year (2022) to call Offensive plays for the same Rams team he had left two seasons prior. Last year, Coen called plays for a Kentucky team that went 7-5 and appeared in the Gator Bowl where they lost to Clemson, bringing the “Coen Coaching Carousel” up to present day.
Coach Coen was hired to run an offense that hopes to re-sign Baker Mayfield, whom Coen is familiar with after Mayfield briefly played for the Rams in 2022 while Coen was OC. He has a very modern view on Offensive strategy, something teams in the NFL are migrating to more than ever with the emergence of young successful coaches such as Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan.
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