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Calm, confident Liam Coen prepared for Jacksonville Jaguars' debut | Ryan O'Halloran
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- Calm, confident Liam Coen prepared for Jacksonville Jaguars' debut | Ryan O'Halloran
Seven-plus months after he was hired as the Jacksonville Jaguars ' coach and one week before his debut, Liam Coen faced a rare moment of indecision and confusion.
Walking down a hallway on the second floor of the team's training facility, Coen shuffled his feet and looked back at a media relations representative.
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"Right or left?"
Unfamiliar with that part of the building, Coen was told to take a left toward the wing that houses his office.
Our point: Everything is new for Coen since he was tabbed by owner Shad Khan to replace coach Doug Pederson. New assistant coaches. New players. New support staff. New city. New hallways. New doors.
But in the same breath, everything about the Jaguars-Coen partnership feels right. Granted, no real games have been played — the season opener is Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Carolina Panthers — but a franchise in critical need of energy, modernization and belief has checked those boxes in the 39-year-old Coen.
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"I had a strong conviction early in the process that not only was he a great offensive coordinator, he was going to be an outstanding head coach because he's a leader and he has the ability to connect, communicate and clearly articulate his vision," Jaguars executive vice president of football operations Tony Boselli said.
Coen became an overnight sensation as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ' offensive coordinator in 2024, but the journey was two decades in the making, starting with his career as a record-setting quarterback at UMass. Now Coen is tasked with helping quarterback Trevor Lawrence to the consistently elite status and stopping the merry-go-round of head coaches and, ideally, the near-constant losing.
This has been a franchise with too much losing, which has produced too much turnover. Since 2020, Coen is the Jaguars' fourth coach . They have made the playoffs twice since 2008. And they went 4-13 last year. An overnight turnaround would be a shocker, but that's what we said in 2017 and 2022 . If it does happen, Coen will be the North Star.
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Road to Jacksonville
Only 10 years ago, Coen was quarterbacks coach at UMass.
Only five years ago, he was assistant quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams .
And only two years ago, he was offensive coordinator at Kentucky.
As Coen's coaching career progressed, his eyes were equal parts on the present but also the end game: Becoming an NFL head coach. It started to crystallize when he joined the Rams in 2022 as offensive coordinator.
"Realistically, it was, 'OK, you're in a position now where that could occur,'" Coen said.
The reality was a figurative gut punch. The Rams went 5-12 and it was back to Kentucky to call plays for the Wildcats.
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"You're like, 'Well, I'm probably going to be in college for a little while,'" Coen said.
Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen watches practice during the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 18th and final training camp practice at Miller Electric Center in Jacksonville, Fla. Wednesday August 20, 2025. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]
Coen turned that opportunity into a quick return to the NFL with the Buccaneers and a fast-track to him being hired by the Jaguars.
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"Getting to Tampa last year probably opened up the door again, but it wasn't, 'If I take the Tampa job, I'll get a shot at a head job,'" Coen said. "It was, 'I just want to get back into the NFL, prove it, show it and do my job the best I can.' Obviously, things started to click as we had more success and I started getting some of those phone calls (after the season)."
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Coen-to-the-Jaguars was kind of like the drive from Tampa to Jacksonville. Stops and starts. Frustration and angst. But once general manager Trent Baalke was turfed by Khan, Coen was back in play and hired by the Jaguars. The arrival of Boselli and general manager James Gladstone soon followed.
A new era — another new era — of Jaguars football was underway and the new administration made a mega-splash by trading up to draft Heisman Trophy-winning cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter second overall .
In addition to aiding Lawrence, It is up to Coen to utilize Hunter's unique set of skills, get running back Travis Etienne to a 1,000-yard level and design ways to get star receiver Brian Thomas Jr. the football regardless of the opponent, all the while serving as the voice of the organization in-season and in front of the roster several times a week.
Making community proud
Like so many, Coen took his family to Disney last weekend, where he continued to discover the passion of a Jaguars fan base who have stuck with the team through so many setbacks.
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"At Disney for a day, a bunch of people stopped us and were wearing Jaguars shirts and hats," Coen said. "You definitely get an appreciation for how important football is in this area and the Jaguars are important. The biggest thing for us is we want to put a product on the field that the fans and community is proud of and they're proud to watch this team compete."
Coen could make the trip to Orlando because teams are required to give players three days off over Labor Day Weekend and most head coaches also tell their assistants to stay away from work. But Coen was there Friday morning.
"I did have the building to myself for a while," said Coen, who added he worked on tightening up the game plan and looking at third-down situations.
The players started Carolina Week on Wednesday and Coen addressed the team.
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"He said it's about us being detailed, knowing our assignments and setting a standard for the culture we're building," linebacker Dennis Gardeck said.
Coen said he will run a "What It Takes Meeting" with the players Saturday morning that is exactly how it reads, the keys to victory over the Panthers.
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As for Saturday night, Coen said: "Typically, it will be reiterating the keys in all three phases and getting them in the mindset to go play violently and impose our will physically (on the opponent)."
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Sunday is Chapter 1 for Coen a 17-game obstacle course. Coen knows he can stress all of the positive things he's seen, but starting now, he will need the results to reinforce the message. For the league's elite, teams like Buffalo, Baltimore , Kansas City and Philadelphia , the moments of truth are months away. For teams like the Jaguars, those key moments happen in September.
The final judgment could be years away, but the early returns on Coen are unanimously positive.
"Over seven months working with him, my conviction has grown," Boselli said. "But we're not keeping score yet. We have to keep on getting better because we're getting ready to start playing games that count."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Why Jacksonville Jaguars Liam Coen is prime for regular-season debut
