Photo by Brian Moriarty - UK Football
New offensive coordinator Liam Coen has been in the NFL recently but Kentucky coach Mark Stoops never considered giving him any advice about how to handle local media at UK.
“Really don’t feel the need to. No offense to anybody or anything, but I have no clue what goes on outside of people coming to me when I need to know something. But outside of that, I don’t know what’s going on,” Stoops said.
“I don’t listen to it. I don’t know. As long as –- usually it’s no news is good news for me whether it’s my players or staff or anything. I have no clue what he’s done and not done. I just know him personally and I know our staff personally and the way they handle themselves and who they are.
“You don’t get to get to these positions without being able to handle yourself. It doesn’t mean any of us are perfect. We all know we’re not. We’re going to make mistakes, but I don’t worry about that with Liam or (new running backs coach) John Settle, or any of our guys. I really don’t. I think you know that I’m not that type of control freak.”
Stoops had no need to be a “control freak” when it came time to hiring Settle as UK’s new running backs and co-special teams coordinator.
“John, just look at his résumé and where he’s been and the places he’s coached. Then visiting with him and talking with him, it was kind of a no-brainer for me to be honest with you,” Stoops said. “He’s a guy that comes from a great program at Wisconsin, two different stays there. He has NFL experience.
“Just his personality, his background, his work ethic, the knowledge that he has. What I liked about John was, not only was he a great running backs coach –- you could look at the running backs at Wisconsin and you look at the running backs at Kentucky and feel pretty good about it over the last four, five, six years.
“John’s done a remarkable job at Wisconsin and the other places that he’s been, but also a big picture. He’s a guy with quite a bit of experience that could help with the big picture, could help with special teams with the ‘co’ title. So, he brings an awful lot of experience and stability to that room.”
