Why Liam Coen, Wan’Dale Robinson deserve an assist for Kentucky football’s new star WRs

Wan’Dale Robinson and Liam Coen may have left the Kentucky football program for the NFL, but their impact is still being felt for the No. 9 Wildcats.

Every time freshman Dane Key catches a contested touchdown, freshman Barion Brown breaks off a long kickoff return or transfer Tayvion Robinson makes a defender miss, Robinson and Coen can be credited with an assist. Without the success that pair found in one season in Lexington, it is unlikely Kentucky’s three new star receivers would be Wildcats.

“You hear negative recruiting from other fans and coaches: Why Kentucky?” said Buck Fitzgerald, Brown’s trainer at National Playmakers Academy in Nashville. “You look at them last year, and this is not the Kentucky of five years ago when they kind of ran a glorified wishbone offense with the quarterback running it. They have a real quarterback, real NFL coordinators and they had real talent on the offensive line and tailback and they used the wide receivers to beat people.

“They schemed as creatively as anybody in the conference at getting (Robinson) the touches. Everybody knew where the ball was going, and Wan’Dale still maintained his productivity. When you think about the future, he was drafted extremely high. So, that’s what these young men want.”

The run-heavy offense employed for much of the Mark Stoops era by Kentucky helped build the program to a consistent winner, but it made it difficult to recruit elite talent at the offensive skill positions.

From Kentucky’s first bowl berth of the Stoops era in 2016 to the end of the 2020 season when Stoops decided to replace offensive coordinator Eddie Gran with Coen, the Wildcats signed just two receivers rated as four-star recruits by the 247Sports Composite.

One, Javonte Richardson, never played in a game for Kentucky. The other, Lynn Bowden, became a program legend, but as a quarterback in an offense that ranked 127th of 130 teams nationally in passing yards per game.

Shortly after hiring Coen, Kentucky signed two four-star receivers in the 2021 class. Those players, Dekel Crowdus and Chris Lewis, are now redshirt freshmen working their way into the primary rotation. Coen recruited Wan’Dale Robinson as a transfer from Nebraska. He added quarterback Will Levis as a transfer from Penn State.

In their one season together, Wan’Dale Robinson broke the Kentucky record for catches and receiving yards in a single season.

“It was just like any other receiver, made my eyes bigger,” Brown said. “Now I see they can run the ball, and at the same time (Levis) can get back there and throw you a 60-yard bomb. That was just like throwing candy in my basket. That’s all I needed.”

Brown is the highest-ranked offensive skill position player to sign with Kentucky in the recruiting website era.

Kentucky faced stiff competition for his signature from Alabama, Ole Miss, TCU and others. The Wildcats were rumored to be in a strong position throughout his recruitment, but Brown and Fitzgerald wanted to see if Coen and company could make good on their promises to feature Robinson before committing.

“Obviously, Liam was a great, innovative guy,” Fitzgerald said. “You could tell he was creative, but you still wanted to see that manifest on the field. So, to see the job they did with that young man really made the decision to go to Kentucky a no-brainer.”

As a Lexington native and son of a former Kentucky player, Key would have been a top target for Kentucky even without the offensive change, but the early buzz was with other programs. Michigan, Oregon and South Carolina were also finalists.

Local ties had proven no guarantee of Kentucky signing highly touted receivers previously. Robinson himself first committed to Kentucky as a senior at Western Hills High School in Frankfort then flipped his commitment to Nebraska in part because he feared his skills would not be properly showcased in the Wildcats’ run-heavy offense.

“That’s why I give Liam a lot of credit,” recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow said. “When the offense changed and you’ve got Will Levis here, it’s more do you want to come and play in an NFL system? Talking to some of our skill guys now that are in the NFL, they say it was so easy going to the Bengals, going to the Rams, going to Minnesota. It was the same playbook.

“When you’ve got a quarterback like Will, who I’ve been saying is the No. 1 quarterback in the country, guys want to come and play for that. Now it’s easy to go and recruit elite receivers.”

Kentucky’s wide receiver recruiting momentum has carried over to the 2023 high school class.

Two of the four commitments in the class rated as four-star prospects by 247Sports or Rivals are wide receivers: Shamar Porter from Nashville and Anthony Brown from Springfield, Ohio. Kentucky is also believed to be in contention for four-star receivers Karmello English and Demitrius Bell, who recently decommitted from Auburn and Michigan State respectively.

Kentucky’s recruiting pitch has added a new element in recent weeks too as new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, who came from the same NFL coaching tree as Coen, uses Virginia Tech transfer Tayvion Robinson in the same way the San Francisco 49ers showcased star Deebo Samuel while he was on staff there.

“I think we coach guys like they’re pro players,” Scangarello said. “I know they’re in college, but I feel like we’re going to be able to recruit who we want because they’re going to want to play in the NFL and they’re going to see that.”

Tayvion Robinson opened his Kentucky career with six catches for 136 yards in the win over Miami (Ohio). He tallied just one catch in the win at Florida but frequently lined up in the backfield like Samuel does for the 49ers.

Brown, who returned a kick 100 yards for a touchdown against Miami, has tallied four catches for 42 yards through two games. Key was the star receiver at Florida, catching a 55-yard touchdown despite tight coverage. He has seven catches for 136 yards and two touchdowns through two games.

Kentucky coaches promised this week there are even more impact receivers on the roster who could show their skills starting with Saturday’s game against FCS Youngstown State.

Lewis and Crowdus are already on the depth chart. Freshmen Jordan Anthony and Brandon White, two of the fastest players on the roster, could make their college debuts on Saturday.

“This is the most talent we’ve had in that room since I’ve been here,” Marrow said.

Kentucky needs contributions from its young receivers to achieve its immediate goals of contending for an SEC East title and reaching a New Year’s Six bowl game.

But the Wildcats also need those contributions to continue their recruiting momentum and ensure the offensive success advances even with Coen and Wan’Dale Robinson in the NFL.

“We’re talking to and have some big-time commits right now that we love, that we have coming in,” said wide receivers coach Scott Woodward, who came to UK with Coen. “I think if you were here a couple years ago you wouldn’t have been able to sniff those type of guys. But with the offense we do run now it helps us a ton in recruiting.”

Saturday

Youngstown State at No. 9 Kentucky

When: Noon

TV: SEC Network

Records: Kentucky 2-0, Youngstown State 2-0

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Series: First meeting

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