‘It’ll be a great game.’ This Super Bowl, UK’s Liam Coen has reason to root for both teams.
When it comes to Super Bowl LVI on Sunday between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams, Liam Coen will be one of those rare viewers with split loyalties.
“I don’t really know which way to go,” Kentucky football’s offensive coordinator said this week. “I imagine I’ll be happy for whoever gets it done.”
After all, the two head coaches are his guys, both Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals. Before the 2018 season, McVay hired Coen as assistant wide receivers coach to replace Taylor, who had been promoted to quarterbacks coach. The three (McVay, Taylor and Coen) spent a Super Bowl season together with the Rams before Taylor was named head coach of the Bengals in 2019.
“I probably stay in touch with Zac as much if not more than a lot of those guys,” said Coen, who became the Rams’ assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020 before being hired as UK’s offensive coordinator in 2021. “Obviously, now that we’re here and he’s in Cincinnati, we spoke (the Monday after the AFC title game). He’s a great dude and an awesome, awesome coach.”
In fact, Taylor has another Kentucky connection. He played collegiately two seasons with UK defensive coordinator Brad White at Wake Forest — “Brad White was my host on my Wake Forest (recruiting) trip,” Taylor said last week — before transferring to a junior college and then Nebraska.
Zac Taylor is ‘the most patient coach I’ve ever been around’
How would Coen describe the 38-year-old Taylor, who in three seasons has guided the Bengals from a two-win team in 2019 to the AFC title in 2021?
“He is probably the most patient coach I’ve ever been around,” Coen said. “It’s different from Sean and probably even myself in some ways, maybe a little bit more Type-A on our end. Zac is not. Zac is extremely detailed, but also patient and maybe a little slower-spoken at times. He really talks through things and thinks through things before he responds to them.
“I never heard Zac Taylor raise his voice in a year of coaching with him. Never. Ever. The NFL is not really a raise-your-voice league anyway, but I never saw Zac rattled. Never saw him panic. He was always consistent, always the same whether good day, bad day, good game, bad game. That’s where I feel like you see his character show up in (the Bengals’) play.”
Liam Coen on Sean McVay: ‘Sean is elite.’
Meanwhile, Sean is Sean, the same 36-year-old bundle of energy who was named an NFL head coach at age 30 and had the Rams in the Super Bowl at age 33. Then again, McVay is not quite the same. This is a different Rams’ team than the one that lost to the Patriots 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII. New quarterback, new receivers, a new defense.
“Sean is elite,” Coen said. “No matter where he’s at, no matter what he’s doing. I think he needed a little bit of a change and some guys to come in to just make a different impact. The quarterback obviously helps. Matthew (Stafford) is unbelievable. As good as Jared (Goff) was for us, Matthew is an elite guy. I think that’s really helped.
“Sean is constantly evolving. You’ve seen that with his gun run this year, his shotgun runs, being a little bit more multiple within the run game. He’s going to listen. Matthew Stafford brings a few concepts and he’s gonna listen and implement them.”
In fact, to Coen, one of the more intriguing aspects of Sunday’s matchup is the different ways in which the two teams were built.
“You see two organizations use completely opposite structures to get where they are,” Coen said. “The Cincinnati Bengals have relied on their star power from draft picks. The Rams haven’t had a first-round draft pick in years. They’ve used trades. They’ve used free agency. They’ve used blockbuster deals. I think it’s a real testament of the organization sticking to that plan.”
So, on the one hand, Coen said, “The scary thing about this game is that Cincinnati doesn’t care. And they’ve proven and they’ve shown that they can play from behind and they don’t panic. They’ve beaten teams that on paper are better than them. For them to beat Kansas City twice in a four-week span is pretty impressive.”
On the other hand, “I’d really like to see Los Angeles finish it, because I was on that staff that didn’t get it done,” he said. “I think (Sean) is extremely deserving. For Sean and for the Rams organization to be in their second Super Bowl in Sean’s five-year tenure I think is pretty impressive. … It’ll be a great game to watch.”
UK’s OC will be watching the game from Lexington
Coen had made plans to attend Sunday’s game in Los Angeles, but he changed his mind. “I went to the Tampa-Rams (playoff) game and I’m in person watching the game and I just can’t watch,” he said. “It’s hard for me to watch it in person.”
Instead, he’ll be watching with his family at his home in Lexington, probably with some friends and fellow UK coaches. And what will his trained eye be watching?
“Zac has got his own wrinkle on the system, and Sean is the one who taught it to us,” Coen said. “It’ll be interesting to see how Zac attacks this defensive structure and how he goes after them. It’ll be really cool to see these guys match up.”
And, according to Coen, whichever team wins, “It’ll be awesome.”
Super Bowl LVI
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Los Angeles Rams
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
TV: NBC with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth
Streaming: Peacock
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 6:36 PM.
