Liam Coen makes history -- could he win Coach of the Year?

His “dUuVaAlLL” may have been a bit uncomfortable during his introductory press conference, but it didn’t take long for Liam Coen to find his footing as a head coach in the NFL.

Taking over a four-win team previously coached by Doug Person with a bottom-five finish, leading to the No. 5 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft before the Jaguars traded up to take Travis Hunter at No. 2, the former two-time Kentucky offensive coordinator has Jacksonville sitting at No. 3 in the AFC playoff picture with a 12-4 record and seven consecutive wins.

They’ve locked in a spot in the postseason and can still jump to the No. 1 seed with a bye and home-field advantage. Oh, and a Week 18 win over Tennessee or a Houston loss to Indianapolis locks up the AFC South, too.

With the team’s most recent win over Indianapolis, Coen has done something no other first-time head coach in the history of the NFL has done, taking a four-win team or worse and leading it to 12-plus wins. Not too shabby for a Wildcat at heart.

Jaguars HC Liam Coen is now the only first-year head coach in NFL history to win 12-plus games after taking over a team that had four or fewer wins in the prior season. pic.twitter.com/KV4LcLPPJb

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 28, 2025

“We haven’t really talked a ton about goals, about the division playoffs, conference, Super Bowl,” Coen said after the 23-17 history-making victory over the Colts. “We have not had any of those conversations as a team. Not really on purpose, more so just because you’re really trying to focus on getting better because there’s so much to coach off of every week for us.

“And even through a lot of wins, we’re able to coach off a lot of stuff and keeping the mindset pretty singular on 1-0 each week.”

Well, what if Coen knew that he was currently ranked fourth in NFL Coach of the Year odds for 2025, according to our friends at BetMGM? He sits behind only Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots (+120), Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers (+150) and Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks (+700) with +1100 odds and just ahead of Ben Johnson of the Chicago Bears (+2000).

It appears to be a back-and-forth between Vrabel, who also turned a four-win Patriots team into a top AFC contender and division winner with very real Super Bowl hopes, and Shanahan, who has seen his 49ers roster ravaged by injury and still may end up as the No. 1 seed in the NFC. For Coen to do what he’s done in year one and stay in the mix with a dangerous Jacksonville squad entering postseason play, though, he deserves all of the credit in the world.

And to think he was leading Mark Stoops’ offense in Lexington just two seasons ago. Life is funny, isn’t it?