Why Brock Vandagriff was confident in Kentucky, even after Liam Coen returned to NFL
For as much as Kentucky football fans clung to every update in the prolonged saga of whether offensive coordinator Liam Coen would remaining in Lexington or return to the NFL, the decision might have been even more important to quarterback Brock Vandagriff.
Vandagriff had just enrolled at UK in January as a transfer from Georgia.
The former five-star recruit’s transfer decision centered around the opportunity to finally start in the SEC after being blocked by other star quarterbacks for three years at Georgia, but it also was influenced heavily by the chance to play for Coen, a former NFL coordinator who had helped transform Will Levis from little-used backup into a second-round draft pick after transferring to UK.
So, when Coen finally finalized a deal to return to the NFL as the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers it was easy to wonder if Vandagriff might consider reentering the transfer portal.
“By then, I’d been throwing with some of the wideouts and tight ends and running backs,” Vandagriff said after Kentucky’s Saturday spring practice in his first interview since the offensive coordinator switch. “I was like, ‘Dang, Coach Coen is leaving,’ Obviously that’s part of it, but as long as we don’t come in and run the triple option next year I think we’ll be able to be all right.’
“Just seeing some of those guys catch the ball and some of the running backs out of the backfield and tight ends making plays, just felt a lot better about that. We were going to trust Coach (Mark) Stoops that whoever he brought in was going to be the right guy.”
Stoops eventually replaced Coen with former Boise State offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan.
Like Coen, Hamdan would run a pro-style offense at UK. His scheme even incorporated some of the same concepts from the Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan NFL system that Coen championed thanks to a season spent with the Atlanta Falcons. But Hamdan’s offense will largely operate without huddling, increasing the plodding tempo Kentucky featured the last two years.
When Stoops had to replace Coen the first time after the 2021 season when he was named Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator, Stoops made a point of including Levis, then a returning senior starter, in the interview process with coordinator candidates. While Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner generated early buzz in the most recent coaching search thanks in part to having already worked with Vandagriff at Georgia, Stoops did not feel the need to include Vandagriff in the search to replace Coen.
“I felt confident that I had to get who was right for this position and if I got the right person that would fit,” Stoops said.
While Vandagriff could enter the transfer portal at any time since he has already graduated from Georgia, it made little sense to do so after Coen’s departure with the spring semester having already started and no sure opportunity for an SEC starting job available. Vandagriff’s father quickly told reporters Brock had no plans to leave Kentucky, and that faith was rewarded with the hire of Hamdan.
“I would say (the offense) is pretty similar to what we did at Georgia,” Vandagriff said. “Everybody runs the same concepts across football. They just call it something different. … It hasn’t been a huge transition is the main thing. It’s been pretty easy to grasp.”
“He’s been coached extremely well,” Hamdan said of Vandagriff. “It’s a very similar system. A lot of times it’s just a change in verbiage, if you will, of what they called it, what we call it. We’re fortunate that he’s got a lot of good work in.”
Stoops, Hamdan and Vandagriff have been pleased with the progress of the offensive installation through five spring practices but the next step will be mastering the no-huddle attack without coaches on the field to correct each play. That process started during a mini scrimmage at the end of Saturday’s practice and will continue through the April 13 Blue-White spring game.
It is likely fans’ first look at Vandagriff in a UK uniform will come in a scaled down version of Hamdan’s offense for the scrimmage, but practice highlights released by UK’s video department have already increased excitement for his potential.
“He’s a full-time quarterback,” Hamdan said. “He loves it. From a leadership standpoint, I think his teammates understand the preparation he puts in. That’s first and foremost. It always starts there.
“It’s a guy that really wants to be great. … Can make all the throws, good decision-making. So, we’re going to just have to keep building. A lot of it is just the nuances of the new offense, new players and how fast we can bring him along.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2024 at 9:20 AM.