Liam Coen, 39, is the new coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.
But you probably knew that because he has been in the sports news for about a week now.
What you may not know is that Liam Coen’s football roots run deep right here in Rhode Island.
His grandfather Phil Coen was a legend on Aquidneck Island, the football captain at Boston College during his career from 1947 to 1951, a high-school coach and a part-time coach at Brown University for years.
His dad Tim Coen coached at South Kingstown High and La Salle Academy and started the successful football program at Salve Regina University in Newport.
Talk about role models.
Liam grew up with football. One long ago day at South Kingstown, Tim was meeting with his staff when an assistant coach noticed Liam drawing on a blackboard. Not doodling, carefully drawing a perfect Wishbone formation. He was 4 years old.
There’s more. Instead of watching kids movies, he watched South Kingstown High game tapes and pretended to call the play-by-play. He put cushions on the floor while his dad watched TV and asked for passes so he could make diving catches.
“He grew up with this. He didn’t want to play with trucks and dinosaurs,” Tim told me last Friday when we spoke on the phone two hours after the Jags announced the hiring. “He loved this game. He played all day. It was fun for him. It’s what he liked to do.”
Liam’s mom Elizabeth, a history teacher at South Kingstown High School, was in charge of academics.
“She was instrumental in his growing up.” Tim said. “I was never around. I was coaching. She instilled a lot of discipline in Liam. If he didn’t do his homework well, he had to do it over.”
Fast forward to 2003. La Salle Academy has this football tradition called Lap Day. After the last practice of the season, the seniors run a lap. The underclassmen cheer them, thank them, offer good wishes and say goodbye.
Liam, a senior, was the record-smashing quarterback. When he finished, he had completed 370 of 520 passes for 5,335 yards and 66 touchdowns. He ran the lap with his classmates.
Later, the team gathered in the auditorium so the seniors, one by one, could share their thoughts about their La Salle football experience and their hopes for college and beyond. There was the usual chorus of “I want to be a detective. I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer.”
Then Liam Coen stood before his teammates.
“I want to be a football player,” he said.
In the National Football League, he meant.
First, though, he had to go to college.The summer before Liam’s senior year at La Salle, Tim drove him to numerous football camps. He attracted little attention from big-time Division I programs. He was a scrawny 6-1, 175 pounds. He did wear a size 13 shoe, Tim said, so a growth spurt was likely.
Despite the family’s strong connection to Boston College, the Eagles weren’t interested. Besides, they had Matt Ryan, and he had three years left.
When Mark Whipple, who played quarterback at Brown and coached the Bears before taking the University of Massachusetts job, offered a scholarship, Liam took it. Then Whipple left for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Don Brown took over in Amherst and had a sideline spot as Liam Coen made UMass history.
After red-shirting in 2004, his first fall at UMass, Liam started the next four seasons and compiled draft-worthy stats: 830 completions, 90 touchdowns, 11,031 yards, conference championships, two NCAA playoff appearances, the FCS championship game in 2006.
His success was tinged with sadness, though. On Jan. 10, 2006, Liam’s mom, Elizabeth Coen, died after a two-year struggle with Lyme Disease.
Golfer’s elbow developed in 2008 and doomed his NFL prospects.
“The word got out,” Tim Coen said. “It’s still sore when he throws today.”
Liam tried a season in the Arena Football League with the Alabama Vikings and realized his playing days were over. So, he turned to coaching, and the Rhode Island connection came through. Phil Estes, head coach at Brown, offered him a job in 2010.
“Being a coach’s son, he knows football. It’s in his blood,” Phil said from his home in the Lake Winnipesaukee region of New Hampshire. “I always knew he was a good kid. He’s so easy to talk to. I saw how he got along with our players and thought this guy’s got something. He’s not just Xs and Os. He has a way of motivating and treating people so they feel confident.”
Liam often spoke of his UMass teammate, future NFL wide receiver Victor Cruz, who convinced him that he had the players around him to make him a better player. “Just throw me the ball, and I’ll catch it,” Cruz would say to his quarterback.
Liam conveyed similar messages to his players at Brown.
“I loved the way Liam treated people,” Estes said.
Liam jumped aboard the coaching train. A year at Brown. A year at URI. Two years back at Brown. Then to UMass and to Maine. He did four years with the Los Angeles Rams under Sean McVay, two separate one-year stints at the University of Kentucky, and this past season as offensive coordinator with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He revived the career of quarterback Baker Mayfield.
“It’s amazing what he’s done,” Estes said. “I love what he’s done with Baker Mayfield. That was a great situation for him.”
Mayfield paid Liam a huge compliment this month, as told by Rick Jones of the Mirror.
“Liam’s done an incredible job teaching the details of why we’re doing certain things, why we have certain plays . . . And calling plays to his player’s strength. That’s what good offensive coordinators do, so he’s done a great job of that.”
Tim Coen said Liam “has the ability to relate to guys, and guys want to play for him.”
But being a coach is more than relating to guys, Estes said.
“It’s a bigger deal to have their respect, and he’ll have their respect,” he said. “He’s a humble kid. For all the great things he did at UMass, all he talked about was how Victor Cruz made him a better player.”
Liam’s move to Jacksonville from Tampa Bay could have been smoother. After one meeting with the Jags he withdrew from consideration. Tampa Bay offered to make him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL if he stayed. Reports put the offer at $3 million per year.
But within 24 hours —after the Jags fired general manager Trent Baalke — he was back in the Jacksonville picture.
Liam sought advice from those he trusted. The response was something like this: “Are you crazy? You have to take this. There are only 32 of these jobs.”
Liam signed for a reported five years at $12 million per year. He will earn every dollar — the Jags were 4-13 this season. On the plus side quarterback Trevor Lawrence has tremendous potential. If Coen’s work with Mayfield in Tampa is any indication, Lawrence is bound to improve.
Tim Coen was helping watch his two young grandchildren, Jackson and Callahan, Friday while Liam shopped for clothes for his introductory press conference Monday afternoon.
“His dream was always to get to the next level. I didn’t expect this,” he said.
Liam is the first native Rhode Islander to become a head coach in the National Football League. He joins Johnston’s Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics as the state’s second big-league head coach.
Phil Estes, Liam’s first football boss 15 years ago at Brown, could not contain his excitement.
“I’m so pumped for him,” he said.
