Brown: Liam Coen has what it takes to win in NFL. Here's why he chose Kentucky football instead

Liam Coen could be in the NFL.

Liam Coen could be in the NFL living in Los Angeles.

Liam Coen could be in the NFL, living in Los Angeles, serving on the L.A. Rams' staff.

Instead.

Liam Coen is back in college football.

Liam Coen is back in college football, living in Lexington.

Liam Coen is back in college football, living in Lexington, serving his second stint as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator.

Some coaches are running from the new era of college sports, with name, image and likeness and the transfer portal empowering NCAA athletes in a way that has never before happened.

Coen ran back to it.

“You have a lot of people looking at you like, ‘What the heck? Are you crazy?’” Coen said. “With the landscape of NIL and transfer portal and academics and compliance, it’s a lot more than football.”

Coen has the acumen to be on an NFL sideline. But it's not the right fit for him. College football is where Coen belongs because it’s a lot more than football.

The offensive coordinator described his relationship with Rams' quarterback Matthew Stafford as a great friendship. He loved coaching the Super Bowl-winning NFL veteran.

“But he doesn't need me in life,” Coen said. “That’s something at 37 years old, I still want in my life — is to be impactful with 17- to 22-year-old kids that are on their path and on their way in life and that was something I missed.”

Coen can have a far greater impact molding young players as freshmen into young men upon graduation, like he watched his father do growing up.

Tim Coen coached Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, before he decided to take the job at La Salle Academy in order to coach Liam Coen through high school.

“My dad was a college head coach, he was my head coach in high school,” Coen said. “I’ve always wanted to be my dad and that’s who I strive to be.”

Podcast with Liam Coen: UK offensive coordinator discusses his return to Lexington with C.L. Brown

Liam Coen will have more opportunities in the NFL — especially if UK’s offense takes off like it did the last time he was calling the shots.

Coen’s lone year as offensive coordinator at UK was a smash hit by all accounts. The Cats averaged more points per game (32.3) and more yards per game (425.4) than any team during coach Mark Stoops’ decade-long tenure.

UK quarterback Will Levis had the kind of success that eventually made him the 33rd overall pick in May’s NFL draft, even after his overall stats dipped last season without Coen.

That's why head coach Sean McVay tapped Coen to return to L.A. to lead the Rams' offense.

But things didn’t go as planned, due in part to an offensive line rocked by injuries. The Rams started 13 different combinations upfront, which Coen said was a league record.

The Rams had the league's fourth-highest percentage of drives end in a turnover (13.1) and ended up last in the NFL in total offense.

McVay has been a kingmaker with the number of former assistants who have become head coaches after serving on his staff. Zac Taylor led the Cincinnati Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance and Matt LaFleur twice had the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game.

Arizona’s Jedd Fisch is the only former McVay assistant who landed a head coaching job in college.

There’s no reason why Coen won’t eventually land on that list.

The Cats’ offense should show why his results with the Rams last season were an aberration.

Quarterback Devin Leary will play a key role. Coen has been very impressed with the N.C. State transfer ever since he was cleared to throw in the spring following his recovery from a torn pectoral muscle.

Coen sees the chance to mold another high-level talent in Leary, even though he only has one year of eligibility left. That’s not something he could do in the NFL.

“I always wanted to be somewhere that football and athletics in general mattered to everybody because the impact that it can have on a community,” Coen said. “And that’s just not the case in Thousand Oaks, California.”

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on Twitter at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his column.

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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Wildcats: Why Liam Coen picked college football over the NFL