I was sold on Coen after the UF game in 2021. He came into the press room staring intently at his cell phone, watching his own video of the throng that had rushed the field.
A reporter asked/stated, “you don’t get this in the NFL, do you?”
Coen turned his attention to the reporter and had this enchanted look in his eye, like a 5 year old on Christmas morning . . . . “Nooooo,, nooo, you don’t get this in the NFL.”
Remember, Coen was a college kid at a G5 program not that long, ago. I think it unlikely he had seen 25K fans charge any field he played on in those years.
The last three years of his life may have been very instructive for Coach Coen.
From the heights of the NFL, to the depths of the NFL, strangely sandwiching one of the top 5 seasons in UK’s modest history.
In spite of NIL and huge coaches salaries, the NFL will always possess the real money in football.
But the chalk-lined fields of our memories from hundreds colleges and Universities are fully possessed of the soul of the sport.
It has always been so.
It will always be so.
These are the fields of state and regional pride. Where North and South have fought and refought. Where segregation
met its inevitable end. Where mere mortals like George Rogers and Greg Page and Chucky Mullins have been transformed into statues that will last for the ages.
Welcome Home, Coach Coen!
