Local kid Liam Coen named head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars

I was a sophomore at Cumberland High School in Rhode Island in the fall of 1985. My parents didn't allow me to play football, but I loved the game and wanted to be around it. So when one of my friends who was the starting running back on the team approached me to inform me that the head coach was looking for a statistician for the team, I jumped at the chance.

My friend told the head coach about me. The following day I went, after school, to the boy's locker room of our gymnasium. As soon as you open the door, to the left was a small office which could seat no more than three people. When one of those people was the size of the head coach, that number was reduced to two.

The head coach's name was Tim Coen. I only knew him as "Mr. Coen," of course. It wouldn't be until years later I would learn his first name.

I had seen Mr. Coen around school at times, usually acting as a monitor in the cafeteria during lunches. I think he taught some course like Health or Industrial Arts or something. I don't remember him being a Phys Ed teacher, but maybe he was. I assumed you needed to be a teacher at the school you coached at.

Even though I had seen him around and walked right past him numerous times, I never had a conversation with him. He was an intimidating presence. Looking back now, he was maybe 6'2" tall with a bit of a gut, but at the time he looked like Andre the Giant to me. Maybe that is why he was chosen for cafeteria monitor. I know I didn't want to mess with him.

So when I knocked on his office door that day, my heart was pounding. He looked up from his playbook that he was analyzing at his desk. He gave me a warm smile as he rose to his feet.

"You must be Tony," he said as he reached out his hand. I call it a "hand" because that is what anatomy teaches us, but this was no "hand" like I had ever seen or felt. This was a paw. This was a catcher's mitt. My hand got consumed by his as if it were a snake swallowing its prey.

But in that moment of shaking his hand, my whole image of him changed. Maybe his hand was a paw and maybe, just maybe, this intimidating, bigger-than-life man was, indeed, a big teddy bear.

I'm sure we didn't talk for more than ten minutes. It wasn't like I was interviewing for an offensive coordinator position. He just wanted someone who would pay attention, not miss any plays, and keep the simple stats of rushing yards, passing yards, completions, etc. I could do that.

I told him how I had notebooks at home of Patriots' games where I would log every play. At the end of the games, I would do more than just add up the customary stats. I told Mr. Coen how I would figure out 3rd down conversions, average yards to go on third down, average yards gained on first downs, completion percentages of passes less than ten yards, 10-20, more than 30. He must have scoffed at me.

"Just give me the regular stats. I'll be happy with that," he said as he shook my hand to conclude our meeting.

Well, I gave him the regular stats. I did the same for the local papers so they could do their write-ups. One of my biggest regrets in life was not staying in touch with one of the local sports' reporters (Mike Scandura of the Pawtucket Times) who grew very enamored with my work and told me to come see him after I graduated college. I didn't, and maybe that is why today I just have this blog to quell my desire to write about sports.

Mr. Scandura, if you are still alive and are reading this, and still have any pull in the industry, message me, please. They always say it's never too late, right?

Anyway, back to Mr. Coen. I did give him the regular stats after the game. A few games into the season, we were on an hour long bus trip coming back from some road game. He looked over and noticed me, intensely, combing through my spiral notebook in which I logged every play of the game we just played. I had notes written along the sides of every page. I had tallies in random spots in which I kept track of a multitude of stats, all of which are commonplace nowadays, but I like to think I was a pioneer in coming up with a lot of them back then.

"What do you got there?" Coen asked me. "What are you working on? You seem really into it."

"Oh no. This is what I do to pass time. I go through these things when I am at home and when I am bored in class. I just like to come up with new stats."

He kicked out whoever I was sitting with on my green, ripped-up, narrow bus seat bench and, suddenly, I was squeezed up against the wall of the bus.

"Let's have a look," he said. "I don't get it. What do all these numbers mean?"

It was understandable he couldn't decipher my writing or my shorthand. I was writing in my own little language. I must have explained to him something like my analysis showed we averaged 7.8 yards per carry when we ran over the left side of the line and only 2.2 when we ran over the right side. Maybe I showed him that our quarterback completed 4-of-5 passes throwing to the running backs and only 1-of 8 when he targeted other receivers. Maybe I showed him our third string running back was, actually, averaging more yards per carry than our first string running back during the second half of games.

Coen was impressed. He told me from that point on he wanted me to stand next to him during games. He also wanted to meet me for a minute or two at the end of halftimes to discuss any "weird" stats I found notable.

It was around this time that Coach Coen announced to the team that he had just become a father. Liam Coen was born November 9, 1985. That would have been just a couple of weeks before our annual Thanksgiving Day game with our rival from the next town over, Woonsocket.

I was the statistician for Coach Coen and my high school football team from 1985 until I graduated in 1989. If memory serves me correctly, I don't think we ever lost more than two games in any season. We never won a state champion championship because a school from Newport named Rogers was a powerhouse during the 1980's.

One of the biggest highlights for me was after a game during my freshman year, Coach Coen introduced the team, real quick, to Rich "Goose" Gossage. Gossage was a Hall of Fame closer for the New York Yankees, among other teams. I was a huge Yankees' fan at the time, and Gossage was the first real celebrity I ever remember meeting. I was awestruck. My recollection has always been that Tim Coen was a minor league catcher and he and Gossage were teammates at one time. Gossage was in the area and wanted to show his support for his former teammate. Coach Coen's hero status, in my eyes, was cemented.

So I went to college and pursued my education in journalism. When I graduated, I saw a news report that Coen was hired by Salve Regina College in Newport to start a college football program from scratch. Quite the undertaking, I thought. Salve Regina was a small school not known for sports.

A few months later, I got a call from Coen. He was wondering if I would be interested in helping him by doing the same statistical analysis stuff I did for him in high school. I was beyond honored that, even after four or five years of no communication, he would remember me and think that highly of my contributions.

Just like how I ignored following up on a gig with my local newspaper, I said no to Coach Coen. Biggest regret in life #2.

Coen would go on to have immediate success at Salve, going 8-1 in 1994. In six total years at Salve, Coen had a record of 53-12, including a remarkable 36-2 in conference play. It was a testament to how great a coach he was.

Coen returned to coach high school football in 2000 in order to coach his son, Liam, who was now a freshman at LaSalle High School in Providence. Coach Coen had previous great success with far less talent in his career as a head coach. Now that he had his talented son playing quarterback, LaSalle High School would win four consecutive Division-I state championships.

"I got the opportunity to coach my son," Coen told the Providence Journal. "It was like the greatest time... So much fun coaching your kid, especially when he loves the game."

Liam would go on to shatter almost all the quarterbacking records at the University of Massachusetts. His dad's coaching career would come to an end in 2005 after a couple more successful years as the head coach of yet a third high school, Portsmouth.

Liam was never a serious candidate, I don't think, to make it at the NFL level. I think he suffered an elbow injury his senior year at UMass which ended any dream of getting drafted.

And that was the last I had heard of the Coen family.

That was until 2020 when I heard a national NFL reporter mention the name, Liam Coen, who was, apparently, a quarterbacks coach on Sean McVay's staff with the LA Rams.

Nah, it couldn't be. After quick research, I discovered it was, indeed, that Liam Coen. Coach Coen's kid was on the coaching staff of one of the best offensive minds of the last decade. And he was coaching the most important position of McVay's offense.

Wow! It doesn't get any better than that, I thought.

But it did, and it would. After going back to college to get some more seasoning as an offensive coordinator – coming up with a scheme, calling plays, game planning – Liam Coen returned to the NFL last year as the offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He opened people's eyes by being instrumental in the career resurgence of 29-year-old Baker Mayfield. Tampa was the fourth team in four years for the former first overall pick in the 2018 draft. It was beginning to look like his career was nearing the end and he was looking at his career being labeled "a bust."

Not much was expected from the Bucs, anyway. They had sold out a couple of years ago to win it all with Tom Brady. They got what they wanted – a Super Bowl win. But now it was time to pay the piper, or so everyone thought.

But the Bucs have continued their success. They made the playoffs in 2024 despite being without their top two wide receivers, Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, for large portions of the season. Both got injured in Week 7. Godwin would be lost for the season and Evans would miss a few weeks with a hamstring strain.

Despite the injuries, the Bucs would go on to win the NFC South with a 10-7 record behind a high-powered offense coached by Coen. Mayfield would have the best season of his career, setting career-highs in completions (407), passing yards (4500), and touchdown passes (41). He also rushed for a career-high rushing yards (378).

As if it wasn't surreal for me watching Coach Coen's kid on the sideline calling offensive plays in an NFL playoff game, Coen became a hot head coaching commodity once the Bucs were eliminated from the playoffs.

I, briefly, entertained the thought of my high school football head coach's son being the head coach of the New England Patriots in 2025.

I knew it had zero chance of coming to fruition. The Patriots couldn't afford to take another chance on a first-year head coach after what they had to endure last season with first-year head coach Jerod Mayo. It would be a PR nightmare. Plus, hometown hero and Patriots' Hall of Famer, Mike Vrabel, was available.

It would have been cool, though.

This week, however, Liam Coen was named head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The way it happened wasn't ideal.

SI's Albert Breer did an excellent article chronicling the days leading up to Coen being named head coach of Jacksonville. According to Breer, Coen was approached by Tampa's GM, Jason Licht, asking how much it would take to keep him in Tampa as a coordinator. Coen gave him a number which would make him the highest paid coordinator in the NFL, "and by a healthy margin."

Licht brought the request to the Glazer family, the owner of the Bucs. The Glazers agreed to the offer, but allowed, and even encouraged, Coen to interview for the Jaguars' job. They thought it would "be a good experience" for him. The Glazer offer was contingent, however, on Coen not doing a second interview with the Jags.

Coen did the interview. When he got back to Tampa, he asked for more money. The Glazers told him a deal was a deal. Coen said he needed time to think about it. As each deadline came, he'd ask for one more day. He did that about two or three times before agreeing, on a Wednesday morning, to accept the offer and stay in Tampa. He told Licht and the Glazers he would be by that afternoon to sign the contract. He even texted players and coaches about his decision to stay.

That same day, the Jaguars fired their GM. Shahid Khan, Jacksonville's owner, must not have been happy that they weren't able to close the deal with Coen.

Wednesday evening rolled around and the Bucs hadn't seen or heard from Coen. After a few failed attempts to contact him, he told him he was attending to some "family matters" and asked to come by the following morning instead.

The following Thursday morning, Coen still hadn't shown up to sign his contract with the Bucs. They finally heard back from him around 5 p.m. He said he was still tending to the "family matters."

In reality, Coen was in Jacksonville doing a second interview. He was also waiting for the Jaguars to satisfy the Rooney Rule by interviewing some "minority" candidates that same day before they could announce Coen as their new head coach.

Tampa fans, as well as ownership, were not happy at the perceived "betrayal." It put a damper on what should have been a jubilant occasion.

Coen's introductory press conference wasn't "pitch" perfect, either. It included a sound bite which went viral. Apparently, Jacksonville fans have a thing they do. They like to chant "Duvallllll" in tribute to the county that Jacksonville is located. Coen thought he would ingratiate himself with the fans if he did a quick "Duvallllll" himself, complete with a lifted eyebrow and a little sway.

He got bashed on social media for it. People were comparing Coen's press conference to the embarrassing introductory press conference of Andrew "Crazy Eyes" Gase as Jets' head coach in 2019.

It was unfair. The clip when taken out of context, as it has been, makes Coen look like an oddball. But, if you watch the context of it, it is harmless and kind of, dare I say, cute.

For me, the best part of the press conference was at the beginning when Liam addresses his father, Tim (he'll always be Coach Coen to me), who was in attendance:

To my dad, my best friend: I was lucky enough as a kid to grow up and have my hero, the dream, and my best friend in the house. That's something, guys, we all know that's special. And I've learned so many things from you, Pops, going through this process of life and I cannot thank you enough for your support and love.

I so wished the camera would have shown Mr. Coen, but it never panned to him. Hearing Liam talk about his father brought me chills, and some tears. I was also saddened to hear about his mother no longer being with us.

"To my angel up in heaven, my mom, Elizabeth. I wish you could see it because this is pretty cool."

She is seeing you, Liam. We are all seeing you. You were very lucky to have had Mr. Coen as your dad.

Liam has been bashed on social media ever since that press conference. I saw some people posting their belief that Jacksonville just guaranteed themselves of going 0-17.

With his father by his side, Liam Coen will be a successful head coach. It may not be in his first go-around with Jacksonville, but it could be. Either way, Liam is only 39 years old. If he doesn't succeed in Jacksonville, he will succeed somewhere else. He will not be Andrew Gase.

Liam has eaten, drank, and breathed football his whole life. He was born into football. His life began when his dad was the head coach of my Cumberland High School team.

Hey, who knows – if I would have accepted his father's offer to help him at Salve Regina in 1994, I might be in Jacksonville right now as an NFL assistant coach to his son.