Liam Coen Knows How To Score
July 5th, 2024
It’s all about points.
Scoring was an issue for the Bucs last year. For a team with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Rachaad White (in the passing game), that just should not have been.
Just looking at new Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen’s recent résumé, one would think the Bucs will put more points on the board this fall.
Joe noticed a note from Brad Thomas typing for Rotoworld mentioning that Kentucky, where Coen was the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator last season, ranked fifth in the nation in scoring.
Quick, name a player in the passing game from Kentucky. Props to you if you recall former NC State quarterback Devin Leary transferred to Kentucky. Leary was an above-average signal-caller but was a sixth-round pick by the Crows, so it’s not like we are talking about the second coming of Caleb Williams.
Coen didn’t have a Kentucky receiver drafted this year yet the Wildcats were one of the best teams in the country at scoring points.
So Joe is going to call it right now: Coen, unlike his predecessor, will find a way for the Bucs to score a touchdown on their opening drive this season.
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July 5th, 2024 at 5:13 am
‘So Joe is going to call it right now: Coen, unlike his predecessor, will find a way for the Bucs to score a touchdown on their opening drive this season.’
Good call Joe. But think even bigger; Coen will have the Bucs offense back into the Top-10 in scoring this season. We had the foundation & now those guys have a year of experience working together. We’ve added some key talent to plug holes in Barton, McMillan & Irving, plus either Hainsey, Opeta or Bredeson is gonna work out at LG. It’s up to Coen now, and McVay wouldn’t have had him on his staff if he didn’t know what he was doing. We got this.
July 5th, 2024 at 5:41 am
Scoring more points in the first half will allow us to win more games especially if our defense is able to prevent scores from opponents. Imo, we have not efficient at that for two years.
July 5th, 2024 at 6:57 am
Hey Liam, I’ve got a guy named Beavis on line 2.
July 5th, 2024 at 7:05 am
Initial preview of Coen sounds very promising. After reanalyzing the first year of Dave Canales, he was nothing special – average at best. He only looked good because he was so much better than the jobless Bryon Leftwich. Good luck Panthers!
July 5th, 2024 at 7:06 am
Just find a way to not make a habit of run-run-pass-punt and this offense will improve by default.
July 5th, 2024 at 7:19 am
Good Luck Liam, you’re going to need it and alot of patience as this offense didn’t score a 1st quarter TD until week 7 and we lost that game to the Falcons 13-16.
July 5th, 2024 at 7:29 am
I still find it curious that the Bucs (and by default Coen) did not draft Ray Davis when he was just sitting there.
July 5th, 2024 at 8:11 am
Either this Thomas guy made a typo or Joe and Pear were getting drunk over the Holiday.
In just the SEC alone Kentucky Wildcats
2022 14th in scoring in the SEC and 13th in PPG @ 20.4
2023 8th in scoring in the SEC and 8th in PPG @ 29.1
Keep it Real. This isn’t the View.
July 5th, 2024 at 8:28 am
That is by far the most telling info you have thus far posted about our new OC and his offense Joe! Kudos and thank you!
Go Bucs!
July 5th, 2024 at 8:47 am
If he can’t, look no further than Bowles for poisoning him with his run first mantra.
July 5th, 2024 at 8:56 am
Don’t go out on a limb or anything with that prediction, Joe! Lol
July 5th, 2024 at 9:01 am
@Fan of the South
Good call. It made me curious about UK offense and I found some article with some interesting stuff.
They ranked 12th in points per play but only ran 54 plays a game which ranked 131 out of 133 teams. Very boom or bust offense. 11 plays of 50+ yards which was 1st in the SEC. Coens offenses were the most efficient offenses in UK since Mark Stoops left. The explosive plays are why because they only had a 3rd down conversion rate of 38%, which ranked 75th. The explosive plays and poor 3rd down conversion explain why they ran so little plays. He improved the redzone offense from 53% to 69% which ranked 4th in the SEC and 23rd overall. He had an ineffiecnt rushing attack that ranked No. 92 in rushing success rate. Not good if we want to improve that here. Devin Leary had the second most TD passes in the SEC and the offensive line allowed only 22 sacks, which was also 2nd in the SEC. This was a year after they gave up more sacks than any other Power Five program. So this sounds like a very QB friendly offense
July 5th, 2024 at 9:03 am
Fan of the South … Good catch. Nationally Kentucky ranked #58 scoring 29.1 PPG average. Not sure where Thomas got that the ‘Wildcats were one of the best teams in the country at scoring points’ or that they were ‘ranked fifth in the nation in scoring’.
July 5th, 2024 at 9:04 am
It will be nice for a year and then what?
July 5th, 2024 at 9:08 am
Man has generated all of 10 points as a play caller in the NFL. Coen is going to have to show me something before I can say I’m confident in him as a playcaller because there’s not much of a track record at the NFL level.
The Bears interviewed Coen also, but went ahead and hired Shane Waldron who also comes from the McVay tree w/way more experience calling plays than Coen.
July 5th, 2024 at 9:14 am
“The explosive plays and poor 3rd down conversion explain why they ran so little plays.”
Last season was the first year of the play clock still running after a first down at the college level instead of it stopping after every first down which likely effected every single offense in the nation. It wasn’t just a UK problem.
July 5th, 2024 at 9:24 am
He knows how to score…..that’s what his wife said 😂
July 5th, 2024 at 9:28 am
Fan O the South..
Less and less is real on this ad site, er uh website..
July 5th, 2024 at 9:54 am
Good vibes about Liam. He has put his head down and went right to work. It is going to only get better this season. Yes, hopefully we score TDs early on and keep the score ahead in the 3rd and 4th quarters. We just can’t stop after half time and live on field goals. I think Liam is going to be focused on all of it. Go Bucs!
July 5th, 2024 at 10:41 am
I never bought in to Canales. There was something about him that didn’t sit right with me. Glad he’s in Carolina now. We’ll have to see about Coen. I agree with Defense Rules that, if Coen was good enough for McVay, I think we’ll be alright. We have some interesting pieces to work with on offense in our established guys combined with the influx of the new young fellas. Barton is going to be a big help on the o-line. If McMillan and Irving can give us some meaningful impact, Baker will have plenty of options at the line of scrimmage.
July 5th, 2024 at 11:12 am
Todd realizes he needs to score points rather than just control the clock. Hallelujah.
#AsToddEvolves
July 5th, 2024 at 11:14 am
I was never impressed with Dave Caneles. BL was a much better OC. Under BL our offense always ranked in the top 10 (except the year when TB12 was no longer interested in playing for the Bucs or at the very least wasn’t focused. Still think he’s the GOAT btw). DC was supposed to improve our running game how’d that work out. I think Cohen will take us back to were BL had us and that’s a top 10 offense!!
July 5th, 2024 at 11:15 am
“New signal-caller Liam Coen put his name on the list of Offensive Gurus leading the Kentucky Wildcats’ offense in 2021 in which they were the 5th-best scoring offense in the nation.”
Hard to find this stat: here is the best source i could locate:
If you sort by ALL teams, Kentucky is like 30th – but if you sort by SEC they are #5. They were in the top-5 scoring teams IN THE SEC that year.
July 5th, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Everyone seemed to miss the note that the article stated the 2021 Kentucky Offense – but I would like to point out 32.1pts/game in 2021 was not 5th in the nation in total pts a game. Would like to understand the writers metric…Pts/play? Pts/game improvement over prior year??
Regardless, the proof is in the pudding…100% Coen improved Kentucky’s scoring efficiency in both 2021/2023 vs 2020/2022 when he was not in Lexington. While also creating a true passing attack & creating hella more explosives on the ground & through the air, during both stints.
2024 should be an exciting time in Tampa!!!
July 5th, 2024 at 12:07 pm
I guess you cant put links in comments, so ill try again
The Kentucky Wildcats were Fifth in Scoring IN THE SEC that year. Not the nation.
July 5th, 2024 at 1:02 pm
catcard202 Says:
July 5th, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Everyone seemed to miss the note that the article stated the 2021 Kentucky Offense – but I would like to point out 32.1pts/game in 2021
When Leary is mentioned and not Levis (UK QB in 2021) then instead of a note perhaps the person that wrote the original article should have pressed delete, get their ducks in a row, and start over getting the facts straight.
Looking at UK 2021 when Levis who is a slow start away from being benched this year had a decent season.
UK in 2021. Passing 333 attempts for 2933 yards and 24 TD’s. Rushing 480 for 2846 and 26 TD’s. Seems to me if Coen had his best success with a run heavy offense what makes anyone think that he will be going Big on Passing and Thin on the Running game?
Of those 480 rushes Levi had 107 for 539 yards and 9 TD’s.
Will Coen have Mayfield challenging Lamar Jackson as the top Dual threat QB this Season?
Kentucky had a good year in 2021 but when you put up 45/56/52 on LA Monroe, New Mexico State, and Louisville who were 12 and 25 collectively that 32.1 points per game is a little deceiving.
July 5th, 2024 at 1:12 pm
“32.1 points per game is a little deceiving.”
Agreed and when you look at it compared to the rest of the college landscape, ranking 24th in 2021 & 50th in 2023 really isn’t all that impressive.
July 5th, 2024 at 1:30 pm
I’m going to guess that the level of defense played by their competition had something to do with this as well. Kentucky didn’t exactly play a bunch of powerhouses…
Nevertheless, he’s an experienced OC (unlike Canales last year), which should make us more efficient and therefore more productive at scoring.
July 5th, 2024 at 1:39 pm
5th in scoring in the SEC isn’t too shabby. Consider the teams that are in the SEC like Georgia and Alabama, football schools that have been good more often than mediocre over the past 50 years. Gators aren’t what they used to be but they used to be pretty bad to the bone. The NCAA football title runs through the SEC most seasons.. Kentucky has never been much of a football college being a perennial basketball school to they’re just turning that corner this past decade. Doesn’t really matter about scoring in the nation because pretty much every other conference is the CFL and the SEC is the NFL. Who cares what the stats are from the rest of the nation when you’ve got Division 1 schools playing in other conferences running the score up on each other. They play a top ten school, they’d score a lot less. Case in point:
6 Memphis
7 Notre Dame
8 SMU
9 Liberty
10 Kansas St
11 Texas St.
16 Ole Miss
17 Kansas
18 Arizona
20 North Carolina
A list of the top 20 ranked schools in scoring. I took out the ones are actually good. You may not fully agree with me on this, but I doubt many of the schools listed above played enough good defenses to really test their offenses thus inflating their scoring stats.
July 5th, 2024 at 1:45 pm
… probably could take Ole Miss and Notre Dame of that list. Ole Miss was pretty good, but they still lost to Alabama and Georgia. But they could put points up against good defenses so let’s scratch them off the list. LOL
July 5th, 2024 at 2:16 pm
Hey, he did that in the SEC. Not like it was against total schlub.
July 5th, 2024 at 3:12 pm
Misleading article…. 5th in the SEC but even that’s not to shabby. The SEC is the NFLs minor league.
I really hope Coen is looking at this opportunity as a chance to do something creative. He’s had the jobs to give him a good foundation. Use the “McVay system” as a base but don’t just copy it.
I think it’s going to be “balanced” but the balance should be dictated by matchups and what the defense is presenting. A lot will depend on Baker. If Coen is truly going to give the QB options on every down then it’ll be on Baker to read/decipher the D and get them in the best play. I’m confident he’s experienced enough at this point in his career, and smart enough to
Excel!
There may be some growing pains early in the season, how much depends a lot on training camp, but I honestly think the offense is going to shock a lot of people with how good they are *If the OL can come together and there are still some pretty big questions there.
July 5th, 2024 at 3:47 pm
Fan of the South…When judging UK scoring in 2021, there’s also the context of the NFL system Liam was installing with an offensive roster that had primarily been a run 1st 2nd & 3rd down inside zone team under OC Eddie Gran… Liam bringing in wide zone – pin & pull, eye candy pre-snap movement & bunched set play action passing attack.
He used the talent he had & got a ton out them… That 2021 UK roster looked like a cast from the land of misfit toys…. Levis was a gimmick QB at Penn St behind Clifford & became a legit NFL radar QB & future 2nd rounder. WanDale Robinson was a gimmick HB at NEB – yet became a unstoppable 1300yd SEC WR & future 2nd rounder…Chris Rodriguez turned from a part-time stable compliment into a 1300yd RB brute.
Maybe UK putting up big #’s against UofL / LA Monroe / NMSt isn’t much…But UK also put up 42 on LSU & Tenn in 2021…& UK played it’s regular 8 game SEC slate – just like every other SEC team… UK going 5-3 in league…10-3 overall & winning the Citrus bowl over Big10 runner-up Iowa – Which is a HELL of a Yr for “lowly” Kentucky.
None of that happens for UK without Coen guiding the offense.
July 5th, 2024 at 3:53 pm
An Erection for Sacks knows how to score, too.🍻
July 5th, 2024 at 5:12 pm
Very interesting. Was unaware of all that. Unfortunately lol… I’m already in full blown optimism season like every fan of every team… so the LAST thing I need is another log thrown on my ‘Fire of Hope’s
But I will say this… I’m not like this every year. There’s valid reasons for being positive. There are a lot of assumptions that need to hold up. CAN’T WAIT FOR FOOTBALL!
July 5th, 2024 at 6:57 pm
If they stay healthy the Bucs offense will score 6+ more points on offense per game this season. It’s a slam dunk.
July 6th, 2024 at 9:55 am
I’ll buy 5th in the SEC, but not 5th in the nation. No chance. Half the offense would have been drafted if they were 5th in the nation in offense and Coen would have had a hell of a lot more teams chasing him for a job.
July 6th, 2024 at 10:35 am
QB. Your mancrush had a great one and a half Gator seasons, by either hitting Pitts, Toney, Jefferson, or one of his backs running wide open, or he’d force it to a triple covered Pitts or a Toney and they’d make a play
Jefferson? Yeah and Mayfield took the Browns to the Playoffs his rookie season.
Stupid is as Stupid does.
July 6th, 2024 at 11:33 am
Thanks for the info, catcard202. This gave me more than just good vibes, which I already had.I have reasonably high expectations for our offense now.
Go Bucs!!
July 6th, 2024 at 12:45 pm
DuhConehead-
Van Jefferson you stupid simp. Kyle’ s half season after Felipe was injured. 2019.
He’s in the NFL. Baker was hitting him with the Rams while your mancrush was practicing clipboard security .
Kyle was throwing to NFL talent in college. Coen had waitresses and bartenders at Kentucky.
Trashkophiles made cretin by their irrational reverence for a very good college player who like a lot of them, will have a great life outside of football.