New Offensive Coordinator For The Cats
For the second time in two years, Mark Stoops needed an offensive coordinator. And for a second straight year, Stoops looked towards the NFL for his pick. Let’s take a look at the new man in charge of the offense as Kentucky hires Rich Scangarello.
The Mystery Candidate
Earlier in the week, the Wildcats lost offensive coordinator Liam Coen back to the NFL. Coen said no to several offers from college teams and at least one NFL job, reportedly the New Orleans Saints. However, the chance to reunite with Sean McVay and the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams was too good to pass up.
Coen stayed around to help UK find his replacement. Almost immediately a few names popped up including current Wildcat wide receivers coach Scott Woodward. Other names were Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers coach Troy Walters and New York Jets quarterbacks coach Rob Calabrese. A late addition was Arkansas tight end coach Dowell Loggains. The wild out-of-the-box candidate that took a life of its own was former Florida coach Dan Mullen.
However late on Thursday word came Stoops had a mystery candidate who would end up with the job. As it turned out that coach was Scangarello. Now that we’ve told you about the coaching search let’s learn more about the man as Kentucky hires Rob Scangarello as its new offensive coordinator.
The University of Kentucky is hiring #49ers quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello as its new offensive coordinator, per sources.
A widely respected QB developer, Scangarello replaces Liam Coen, who took the #Rams OC job and left behind the zone scheme Scangarello knows well.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 25, 2022
From California To Kentucky
Scangarello comes to Lexington from the San Francisco 49ers. In fact, he’s the second coach from the NFC runner-up heading to Kentucky. Of course, Zach Yesner is the new offensive line coach. He replaces Eric Wolford who joined Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama.
The 49-year-old comes to the Bluegrass State with 25 years of coaching experience. That includes seven in the NFL and 15 in the collegiate ranks. In addition to being offensive coordinator, he’s also the new quarterback’s coach.
In 2021 he along with Yesner helped the 49ers go 10-7 and a second NFL Championship game in the last three years. Led by quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo San Francisco ranked seventh in the NFL with 375 yards a game. Furthermore, Garoppolo threw for 3,801 yards, 30 touchdowns and a 98 quarterback rating.
That was his second stint with the 49ers as he held the same position with the club between 2017-18. In between, he was offensive coordinator for one season in 2019 with the Denver Broncos. During the 2020 campaign, Scangarello was the senior offensive assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles. At least one former Wildcat who worked with him approves of the hire.
I was with Rich Scangarello at the Falcons for a minute and I am PUMPED that we stayed in the Shanahan/McVay offensive realm with this hire
— Jacob Tamme (@JacobTamme) February 25, 2022
More Of The Same?
Scangarello is very familiar with the offensive style Coen brought to Lexington. Now he’s bringing his own version of it and has a familiar face helping him in Yesner. After plucking Coen from the McVay coaching tree Stoops went to the Kyle Shanahan tree for his new offensive coordinator. Both McVay and Shanahan worked together with the Washington Redskins and use similar schemes.
After being labeled as a “run only” offense for years Coen transformed Kentucky into a pro-style attack that gets players to the NFL. Stoops wanted continuity and he got it.
Plenty Of Weapons To Work With
In 2021 Coen took over an offense that ranked last of all of the Power Five schools in passing yards. From 2020 to 2021 the Wildcat offense jumped from 123 yards passing a game to 226. Furthermore, Kentucky went from 95th in the country on third and long to fifth. However, the improvement was even better in the red zone as Kentucky went from 106th in the country at 51 percent to eighth at 72 percent.
Under his leadership, Kentucky had a 1,000-yard rusher (Chris Rodriguez), a 1,000-yard pass catcher, (Wan’Dale Robinson), and a 2,000-yard passer (Will Levis.) That was the first time since 2007 Kentucky had accomplished that feat.
Levis and Rodriguez both return and while Robinson is gone the Cats brought in Tayvion Robinson from Virginia Tech who they think can have similar things as Wan’Dale.
Again Kentucky hires Rich Scangarello as their new offensive coordinator as the BBN are once again expecting big things from the 2022 Cats. Spring football is almost here and Last Word On College Football will get you ready with position previews coming soon.
