After promise to "plant roots," South Carolina football rival loses coach again

The 1993 movie Groundhog Day stars Bill Murray and is about a Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania man being forced to live the same day over and over again. Now, 31 years later, a South Carolina football rival is in their own version of Groundhog Day, just with less Sonny and Cher.

The Kentucky Wildcats are losing offensive coordinator Liam Coen to the NFL...again. After the 2021 season, Coen left Big Blue after one nice season to become the offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams. After one year in LA, Coen returned to UK for the 2023 campaign, but when Kentucky fans woke up on Friday, the rumors that had been circulating about a potential Coen exit all of a sudden had more legs.

Reports from Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo surfaced on Friday that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were "working on a deal" to bring Coen to the state of Florida to be their offensive coordinator. If all goes according to play, Coen could be reunited with quarterback Baker Mayfield who, after being discarded by the Carolina Panthers, had a nice run with the Rams under Coen's guidance in 2022.

Coen's departure from the University of Kentucky stings for Big Blue Nation. In his introductory press conference at UK before the 2023 season, Coen was asked about how he left Kentucky after just one season the first time around. In response, he somewhat made a promise to Wildcat fans that he planned "to plant roots" in Lexington this time.

Oops.

Clearly, things changed for Coen, and Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops finds himself in a repeat situation, as well. For the fifth time in five seasons, the Kentucky headman is looking for a new offensive coordinator. As of now, no news has surfaced as to who might replace Coen.

South Carolina football and Kentucky will play this fall in Lexington as the Gamecocks look for their third win in a row in the series on September 7th.