‘He has big things ahead of him.’ NFL draft hopefuls see promise in Kentucky OC Bush Hamdan.
The former Kentucky football players participating in the NFL combine this week were a popular target for questions from central Florida-based reporters.
How will former UK and new Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen adapt to the NFL? How does Coen relate to players? What are the strengths of his offensive scheme?
Quarterback Devin Leary, running back Ray Davis and wide receiver Tayvion Robinson knew in December they would be making the jump to the professional ranks. The fact they could do so playing for or against their former UK offensive coordinator came with varying degrees of surprise.
“Opportunities come up sometimes and there’s some you can’t really turn down,” Leary said. “I know he still feels a lot of love for Kentucky, but it did take me by surprise.”
“He has to make the decision that’s best for him and his family,” Robinson added. “An opportunity like that, you can’t pass up on. An OC and OC in the NFL is completely different. He got an opportunity to reconnect with a quarterback he played with. I’m happy for him, I wish him the best.”
As for the future of Kentucky’s offense with Coen gone and former Boise State coordinator Bush Hamdan calling plays, players in the combine saw reason for optimism.
Little about the 2023 season, Coen’s second stint as UK offensive coordinator, went according to plan.
The return of Coen, who coached at UK in 2021 but served as the Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator in 2022, paired with the addition of Leary as the top-ranked quarterback in the transfer portal was supposed to take the Wildcats’ offense to a new level. Instead, the 2023 season was characterized by inconsistency, especially from Leary and the receivers.
Leary ranked second in the SEC with 25 passing touchdowns, more than Will Levis threw in either of his seasons as a Wildcat, but he also led the league in interceptions (12). Leary completed just 56.3% of his passes, his lowest completion percentage since his freshman season at North Carolina State.
In some ways the struggles were more frustrating because they came with multiple highlight reel worthy passes per game.
“Ultimately from a production standpoint, I know I could have done a lot better,” Leary said. “It wasn’t necessarily what I set out to do, but overall from a developmental standpoint and honestly taking a leap of faith of transferring, learning a new system, getting around a whole bunch of different guys, overcoming a pretty severe injury, I’m blessed to be here.
“... I know my best football is still in front of me, but ultimately to develop as a quarterback, I’m very thankful for my time at Kentucky.”
There was plenty of blame to go around for Kentucky’s offensive struggles. Early in the season in particular, Leary’s stats appeared to be weighed down by poor play at wide receiver. After the season, Kentucky fired wide receivers coach Scott Woodward, a close friend of Coen.
But UK coaches did little to hide the fact they thought quarterback play was a major contributor to the struggles too.
Coen bemoaned a lack of player leadership late in the regular season. On signing day, coach Mark Stoops acknowledged one of the factors working in the favor of Georgia quarterback transfer Brock Vandagriff was he had run a pro-style offense previously.
Leary, who ran a spread offense at N.C. State, seemed to struggle with Coen’s pro-style scheme at times.
“The way we function with the portal, with the turnover on offense, you want to make sure the operation is clean,” Stoops said in December. “Unless somebody has done that, you can’t guarantee how clean that can be, and that slows things down.
“Not even any one person. Could be other positions. It’s not just the quarterback.”
With a plodding pace of play a frequent issue for Kentucky’s offense in 2023 under Coen and 2022 under former NFL assistant Rich Scangarello, Stoops elected to stick in the college ranks by hiring Hamdan as Coen’s replacement.
At his introductory news conference, Hamdan stressed the importance of keeping a pro-style scheme — he learned some of the Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan concepts Coen and Scangarello used during one season as quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons — while also simplifying things for a college audience.
“I think it’s important for them to play fast,” Leary said. “I really do. I think when it comes to a developmental and NFL standpoint, the system we were in is as good as it gets, but when it comes to what Coach is kind of referring to, if you want your guys to not think much and play fast, simplicity is the best way to go.”
Robinson agreed with the suggestion a simplified offense could help Kentucky play faster but said the Wildcats should stay in the pro-style system to help prepare players for the NFL.
The hope is Hamdan can bring the best of both worlds.
“He was really balanced on how he really ran the offense,” former Boise State running back George Holani said of Hamdan. “We had five run plays, five pass plays. Whatever he called, it worked. I believe in that guy. Wherever he’s going, he has big things ahead of him.”
Ask if Hamdan’s offense prepared him for the NFL, Holani, who totaled 748 yards and seven touchdowns in eight games last season, noted the pro-style terminology, which included longer play calls, could help him at the next level.
“He prepared me in many ways,” Holani said. “Just going over as a running back you don’t want to just know a front, under or over. You want to be able to know coverages, what coverage the defense is in and being able to break that down. He helped me in my game with that, just being able to identify that.”
There is hope then another batch of Kentucky offensive players will be at the combine in a year, continuing to support the theory a pro-style offense helped prepare them for the NFL.
Of the Kentucky offensive players at the combine this year, only Davis has met formally with Coen’s new team. It is difficult to project where any mid-round draft prospect like Davis might land, but the chance to play for Coen again carries some appeal.
“We had a really good season together at Kentucky,” Davis said. “Tough that it was only one season. I think we both would have wished we had more. It would be cool to go to any team, but to be reunited with Coach Coen would be pretty good.”