JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — New Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen wants players who play “through the echo of the whistle” and “on the edge.”
It would be the kind of identity and mentality the woeful franchise has lacked for most of the past two decades.
“It’s a violent game,” Coen said. “They have to be that way. I want them to play that way. So that’s where it starts. If we can get that out of these guys, I think we’ll be moving in the right direction.”
The Jaguars introduced Coen on Monday, three days after agreeing to terms on a five-year contract. Owner Shad Khan parted ways with general manager Trent Baalke to clear a path to land Coen, who reversed course after telling Tampa Bay he planned to remain the team’s offensive coordinator.
Khan called Coen late Wednesday, persuading him to change his mind about interviewing and consider becoming the eighth head coach in franchise history and fourth in the past six years. Coen will now have significant input on hiring a general manager.
“He was extremely convincing,” Coen said. “I’m not saying it’s a blank canvas by any means, but it’s a canvas and it’s a canvas that you can go work with and put time and investment in, and it’s not so far away.”
Khan was looking for an offensive-minded coach who would modernize the Jaguars and get the most out of Trevor Lawrence, who signed a five-year, $275 million contract extension in June.
“The fundamental thing that we need to address and the No. 1 thing, obviously, is the quarterback position and our commitment to Trevor,” Khan said. “I think it’s well known, and we believe in him.
“That was the fundamental question really to all the candidates: How would they do it? After we got done with that, it was very evident to me that Liam was the guy.”
The 39-year-old Coen was the architect of one of Tampa Bay’s most productive offenses in its history in 2024. The Buccaneers ranked third in the NFL in yards (399.6 per game) and fourth in points (29.5).
Coen became the first NFL coordinator in at least the past 25 years to average more than 28 points a game, average more than 6 yards a play, convert more than 50% of the time on third down and score touchdowns 65% of the time in the red zone.
And Coen envisions having similar success in Jacksonville with Lawrence, who has missed eight games the past two seasons because of various injuries.
“When I went and watched his response to negative plays, whether it was a pick, an incompletion, a critical third down miss or a punt or whatever it was, I felt like he always responded," Coen said. “And that was something that I was like, ’Man, OK, he’s got that. That takes (heart). That’s all that matters. That’s not all that matters, but in that moment, that’s what matters. And so I saw that and I’m like, ‘OK, he’s got that.’ That’s huge to start off with.”
The Jaguars lost 18 of their final 23 games under former coach Doug Pederson, who was fired with a 23-30 record after three seasons. One of the main complaints about Pederson’s team was it lacked an identity — on either side of the ball.
“How do we want to play the game? Fast, fundamentally sound, attacking, situational masters and tough both mentally and physically,” Coen said. “It is players over plays. How do we make this as much about the players and making this about bringing out the best in you.”
Getting there, Coen said, starts with creating culture. It’s a topic he’s already broached with Lawrence and fellow captain and defensive end Josh Hines-Allen.
“I heard guys that are yearning for more, just more culture, more unity, more communication, just everybody being on the same page, a true aligned vision and for everybody to be able to tell each other some hard truths in ways and see each other’s blind spots and communicate those because that’s where the growth occurs,” he said.
Coen interviewed Minnesota defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Daronte Jones on Monday for Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator position. He also already decided to retain special teams coach Heath Farwell, who signed a three-year contract Monday.
Two of Farwell's specialists, punter Logan Cooke and long snapper Ross Matiscik, made the Pro Bowl.
“That was a no-brainer,” Coen said.
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Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan introduces new head coach Liam Coen to the media during an NFL football news conference in Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)
Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, left, and new head coach Liam Coen, right, speak with the media during an NFL football news conference in Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)
Jacksonville Jaguars new head coach Liam Coen speaks with the media during an NFL football news conference in Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump offered some encouraging words and advice for graduating students at the University of Alabama on Thursday in a speech interspersed with impressions of transgender weightlifters, accusations that judges were interfering with his agenda and attacks on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The Republican’s jolting speech was standard fare for Trump and well-received by the crowd in deep-red Alabama, which backed him in all three of his presidential runs.
“You’re the first graduating class of the golden age of America,” the president told the graduates.
But he quickly launched into a campaign-style diatribe, saying that the U.S. was being “ripped off” before he took office and that the last four years, when he was out of power, “were not good for our country.”
“But don’t let that scare you,” he said. “It was an aberration.”
The president of the University of Alabama, Stuart Bell, told graduates before Trump took the stage that Thursday night’s event was all about them.
“This special ceremony offers a meaningful opportunity for you, for I, to reflect on the important connection between academic inquiry, civic leadership, and public service,” Bell said.
Trump mostly went in a different direction.
He did a grunting impression of a female weightlifter as he criticized the participation of transgender women in sports. He bragged about how tech moguls have warmed up to him, saying, “They all hated me in my first term, and now they’re kissing my ass.”
And he falsely claimed that the 2020 election, which he lost, was “rigged.”
But after talking up his tariff plans, sharing his successes from his first 100 days in office and bashing the media, Trump turned back to the graduates, offering 10 pieces of advice drawn from his life and career, such as “Think of yourself as a winner,” “Be an original” and “Never, ever give up.”
He told them they were never too young to be successful and described how he worked on his first hotel development deal in his 20s.
“Now is the time to work harder than you’ve ever worked before,” he said. “Find your limits and then smash through everything.”
Although Trump described the speech as a commencement address, it is actually a special event that was created before graduation ceremonies that begin Friday. Graduating students had the option of attending the event.
Former Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban also spoke, regaling the audience with a story about visiting the Oval Office in 2018 during Trump's first term. Saban said Trump was a gracious host.
In his remarks Thursday, Trump noted that he was marking his 100th day in office and touted the plummeting levels of arrests at the southern U.S. border as evidence that his immigration policies were working. But he accused the courts of trying to stop him from fulfilling the promises he made on the campaign trail.
“Judges are interfering, supposedly based on due process,” he said. “But how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally?”
Trump has a long history of injecting such rhetoric into his remarks at venues where traditional political talk was seen as unseemly.
On his first full day in office in 2017, he used a speech at a memorial for fallen CIA agents to complain about journalists and defend the size of his crowd at the inauguration. Later that year, he drew backlash for talking about politics at a Boy Scouts gathering. And earlier this year, he delivered a grievance-filled speech at the Justice Department where he threatened to “expose” his enemies.
Ahead of Trump's arrival, Emily Appel, a 22-year-old advertising major from Norcross, Georgia, called Trump's appearance at her school “a cherry on top” of her college years.
She said she hoped he had a message to share that was "positive about us being able to work in the real world and for our future.”
Sophie Best, who is graduating with a communications degree, said, “I don’t think that we could have had a greater person come to speak."
The 21-year-old from Cartersville, Georgia, said she attended Trump's first presidential inauguration in 2017 when she was a freshman in high school, along with her father, who she said loves Trump.
“I think that no matter what political party or whatever you believe in, I think that it’s super cool that we get to experience and make history and be a part of this,” she said.
At a park a mile away, hundreds of people gathered at a counter-rally hosted by College Democrats. One-time presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke of Texas and former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, addressed the attendees at their event, called a “Tide Against Trump” — a play on the university’s nickname.
Aidan Meyers, a 21-year-old junior studying biology at the university, said he was upset by the decision to let Trump speak at a graduation-related event.
“I felt betrayed that the university was willing to put up with someone who has made it clear that they hate academia, essentially holding funding above universities' heads as a bargaining chip, unless they bow down to what he wants, which is kind of a hallmark sign with fascist regime,” Meyers said.
O'Rourke told the rally that Trump was trying to make the students’ graduation “all about him, true to form.” He urged students and others gathered to go out and use their voices to “win America back.”
“The power of people works in this country, even against Donald Trump,” O’Rourke said.
Jones told the crowd they were there “not just as a protest, but as a movement.”
“You are here today because you’re concerned, you’re afraid. You understand that this country’s great democracy is teetering right now with what we’re seeing going on,” the former senator said.
Trump’s presence also drew criticism from the Alabama NAACP, which said his policies are hurting universities and students, particularly students of color.
After his stop in Alabama, Trump is scheduled to travel to Florida for a long weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Later this month, he is scheduled to give the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.
Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
University of Alabama president Stuart Bell speaks before President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump walks with Air Force Col. Angela Ochoa, Commander of the 89th Airlift Wing from Marine One to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
