The Jaguars joined the coaching carousel this offseason and have landed on Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen as their next head coach after a whirlwind few days.
Jacksonville missed out on the Ben Johnson sweepstakes, but they found another quality candidate in Coen only to see him pull out of the running on Wednesday. The Jaguars then fired GM Trent Baalke, who reportedly scared candidates away from the job, and Coen re-engaged with the team on Thursday.
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reports Coen reversed course because Jacksonville will pay him “Ben Johnson level money” and let him choose the team’s next general manager to replace Baalke.
After spending five years in the NFL and more in the college ranks, Coen will now become the 10th head coach in Jacksonville history after a successful one-year stint in Tampa Bay.
Coming from the Sean McVay coaching tree, Coen has a reputation for being one of the league’s up-and-coming offensive minds. The 39-year-old put that on full display this season when he was the architect behind the No. 4 scoring offense for the Buccaneers.
As Coen prepares to usher in a new era in Jacksonville, Sporting News has you covered with everything you need to know about the Jaguars’ new head coach.
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Who is Liam Coen?
After getting an opportunity to join Sean McVay’s staff in Los Angeles in 2018 as the assistant wide receivers coach, Coen has quickly risen through the coaching ranks. At the age of 39, Coen will take on his first head coaching gig in Jacksonville.
Where did Liam Coen go to college?
Coen spent his collegiate career at the University of Massachusetts, where he played football from 2004 to 2008. He played all four seasons for UMass as the team’s starting quarterback, and he was roommates with former Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz.
A prolific passer throughout his collegiate career, Coen has his name littered across the UMass record books. Coen leads all Minutemen quarterbacks in career attempts, completions, yards, completion percentage and passing touchdowns.
Liam Coen coaching timeline
Before joining the Rams in 2018, Coen started his career in the college ranks. From 2010 to 2015, Coen worked as an assistant coach at Brown, Rhode Island, and his alma mater, UMass. He then received his first opportunity as an offensive coordinator in 2016, taking control of the offense at the University of Maine.
After two years at Maine, Coen got an opportunity to head to the NFL under an offensive guru in McVay.
Coen took over as the assistant wide receivers coach in Los Angeles ahead of the 2018 season. He spent two years in that role before transitioning to the quarterback room, functioning as the assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020.
His big break came a year later, when was asked to take over another college offense, this time in the SEC. He assumed the position of offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky in 2021.
Coen was in this role for just one season, but he was incredibly successful. The Wildcats finished with a 10-3 record on the back of 32.3 points per game. Coen also played a key role in the breakout of Will Levis during his junior season.
After that performance in Lexington, Coen returned to the Rams as the team’s offensive coordinator. But the 2022 season did not go well for Los Angeles.
Fresh off a Super Bowl win, the Rams’ offense crumbled, ranking toward the bottom of the barrel in most offensive production metrics in large part due to Matthew Stafford’s injury struggles. Regardless of the cause of their failure, Coen served as the scapegoat and was relieved of his duties after just one season.
Following a one-year stint back at Kentucky, Coen returned to the NFL in 2024 as the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator. This would be his first season as an NFL playcaller and required him to fill the rather large shoes of former OC Dave Canales.
Coen did more than fill the shoes of Canales, leading the Buccaneers to a top-five offense in both yardage and scoring. Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield put together a career year with 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns.
After a back-and-forth with the Jaguars, Coen will now look to transform another offense when he takes the reigns in Jacksonville.
Liam Coen family
Coen met his wife, Ashley, ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since striking up a relationship, the two have bounced all over the country from Lexington to Los Angeles to Tampa Bay. Coen understands the sacrifice it takes for his wife to handle the instability of a coaching career.
“I really learned from her. I learned how to be a man from my wife,” Coen said of his move to the University of Kentucky. “It was hard. Her whole life was in California. Her friends, she was there for 12 years. Her mom is in Vegas. It was hard as a family to make that decision.”
Ashley and Liam have two sons, Jackson and Callahan.
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