Liam Coen says dream was right in front of him. 'How do you say no to that?'

Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times on Jan 27, 2025

Published in Football

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — What do you do when your dream is there at the end of your fingertips?

When you don’t have to wonder whether all the tomorrows will lead you to this place because someone believes you’ve arrived today? Maybe it’s not the way you planned it, and it means going back on your word.

Life and work can get messy sometimes. But it’s hard to walk away if someone is securing your future with a five-year contract worth close to $60 million to do what you love.

Liam Coen wants everyone to know he’s sorry for the way things went down. He is remorseful that he told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he would withdraw from the Jaguars' head coaching search and accept a deal to become the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL at $4.5 million per year, only to sneak away to Jacksonville the next day and agree to become their head coach.

“At the end of the day? It came down to business,” Coen told the Tampa Bay Times following his introductory news conference as the Jaguars' head coach Monday. “It did. It came down to family and business and a dream that was right in front of you!

“Not maybe down the road. How do you say no to that?”

Coen said he didn’t feel any extra pressure from the Bucs when he initially agreed to forgo a second interview with Jacksonville on Wednesday to remain in Tampa Bay.

“No, not really,” he said. “None at all.”

But by Wednesday afternoon, Jaguars owner Shad Khan had fired general manager Trent Baalke, who had been an impediment to attracting top candidates. Hall of Famer Tony Boselli, who had been acting as an adviser to Khan throughout the search, reached out to Coen.

By Thursday, the Bucs couldn’t reach Coen until around 5 p.m., when he said he was looking back into the Jaguars opening. The Bucs already knew he was in Jacksonville.

Coen said he called Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield, who had taken his offensive linemen to the Caribbean.

“Literally, I’m FaceTiming with Baker and the O-linemen in the Bahamas and they’re like, ‘Liam! Go get that! You go get that!’” Coen said. “And (running back) Bucky (Irving) is telling me that he loves me. I just texted with (receiver) Mike Evans. He’s at the Pro Bowl. Guess what? If my coaches and my players, if they’re good, I’m good.”

Coen knows general manager Jason Licht is furious with him. Maybe head coach Todd Bowles is, too.

“And I want Jason to be good with it,” Coen said. “I love Jason. Those guys gave me an opp! I’ll never forget that. But time heals. Time heals. We’ll be all right.”

Less than a week ago, Coen was engaged in a dysfunctional family feud with the Bucs and fans.

On Monday, he was deftly handling questions for more than 30 minutes in his first news conference as head coach like he was anticipating a zero blitz.

He said he owed a great debt to Bowles and the Bucs. He thanked all the coaches he had worked for during his journey, including Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops and Rams coach Sean McVay. He thanked his father, Tim, who coached high school football in Rhode Island from the time he was 4.

“I was lucky enough as a kid to have my hero, the dream and my best friend in the house,” he said.

He said to wife Ashley, “You make me better.” He joked that his son’s names are Jackson and Callahan. ”Wild. Jackson. Jacksonville," he said. “Callahan town. I mean, here we go.”

It won’t be an easy turnaround for Coen and the Jaguars, who are coming off a 4-13 season. They play at least one game in London next season. In two years, when the stadium renovation has started, his team will split time between London and Orlando for home games.

Several Jags players were in attendance Monday, including quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

“How do we make Trevor Lawrence and this offense as dynamic and explosive as we can be? We’ve got to build it around him, we’ve got to make every part of this about improvement, and he will be a part of that process,” Coen said. “He’s earned that right. I cannot respect his toughness and mentality and work ethic more than I do already from afar. This will all be about Trevor.”

One more thing about Coen’s opportunity. He will have a say in choosing the next general manager.

“To be part of bringing in the GM? Sean McVay didn’t have that,” Coen said. “Only Kyle Shanahan has that.”

After a few minutes, Coen was being pulled by the Jaguars media relations folks to do other interviews. He said he will miss coaching Bucs players.

“It’s an opportunity,” Coen said. “Not that the other was out of the question, but this is now.

“It’s just the feeling I had when I accepted the Bucs (new contract), it was, ‘Okay.’ But when I said okay to the (second Jaguars) interview, it was just a completely different feeling I had. It was like, ‘This is how I’m supposed to feel right now.’ And I think everybody would want that. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t want to coach Baker. Who wouldn’t want to coach Baker? I loved coaching him.

“But this is right now.”

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