Three Kentucky football notes, including Devin Leary’s relationship with Liam Coen

Because we do many things in threes on this blog, a trio of notes from interviews two weeks into Kentucky football’s 2023 fall camp:

The Devin Leary-Liam Coen relationship

One reason quarterback Devin Leary decided to transfer from North Carolina State to Kentucky was UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen. No secret there. Leary has NFL aspirations. Two seasons ago at Kentucky, Coen coached Will Levis, taken in the second round in this year’s NFL Draft. Last season, Coen was the Los Angeles Rams’ offensive coordinator.

So during Leary’s interview session following last Saturday’s scrimmage, I asked Leary how the QB/OC relationship was developing. Was there give-and-take between the two? Or is Leary in full listening mode?

“Definitely I would say a little bit of both,” Leary said. “As a player to a coach, I’ve always been taught and raised to sit back and learn and make sure that if I’m being coached I want to be coached as anyone on the entire team.

“But at the same time, me being an older guy, now going into my sixth year, I’ve had a lot of snaps under my belt that he’s able to listen to me at times, too, which is really cool perspective from a quarterback.

“He’s seen it at the highest level being around Matt Stafford, Jared Goff, so I always want to learn as much as I can from him, but pick his brain on what I could do better, too. So I think it’s been a cool relationship.”

Anthony Brown has learned from his brother

By all accounts, freshman wide receiver Anthony Brown has flashed in UK’s camp. The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Springfield, Ohio, native has an excellent shot at being in the rotation when the Sept. 2 opener against Ball State arrives.

Brown has an interesting backstory. His uncle is John Legend, winner of 12 Grammy awards. His brother Michael Brown-Stephens started all 12 regular season games for Minnesota last season before transferring this season to South Florida.

I asked UK associate head coach and recruiting chief Vince Marrow that if in his experience, players who have older siblings who played college football, are more prepared for the jump from high school.

“That’s a good question because I’m the youngest of four brothers that were D-1 college football players and about the time it got to me I understood what the work ethic was and how to have the drive,” Marrow said. “Anthony Brown is just a driven guy.

“And you look at again his uncle and his uncle is one of the best, you know, R&B singer or pop star in the world and he worked hard doing what he got from Springfield, going and making it, and now living in L.A. Anthony Brown is the same way.

“But I think Mike, his brother, who went to Minnesota, he’s seen what it was like for Mike and now he’s just — I think he learned from his brother’s mistakes and even the positive and I think he built off that.”

One difference between Liam Coen and Rich Scangarello

In 2021, UK wide receivers coach Scott Woodward coached with his friend Coen as the Cats’ play-caller. Last season, Woodward coached with Rich Scangarello, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks coach who replaced Coen, but was let go at the end of 2022.

I asked Woodward last week if there was anything he picked up from Scangarello that has helped him in his reunion with Coen?

“I think the way we coach it here with Liam is a little different,” Woodward said. “Rich was kind of more of a ‘Let these guys play and we’ll figure it out.’ With Liam it’s a little bit more detailed.

I think with a young group of receivers, we need that detail.

“Not saying it was bad last year because we had two freshmen All-Americans (Barion Brown and Dane Key). We made it work. But I think with a group of older guys, where Rich was coming from the NFL, you could trust those guys to do it right by themselves.

“With these young guys coming from high school, they don’t know what to do. So we’ve got to be a little more detailed in the coaching that way to get what we need.”

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