HEAD COACH LIAM COEN
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2025
(On if he has to worry about the team’s focus during a holiday week) “I’d hope not. I hope
not. These guys know, I think that they understand as much as anything with a division
game. This is a team that if you just watch the tape, which doesn’t lie typically, this is not a
team that thinks or is playing like they’re 1-10. That’s the reality and so, they have enough
game wreckers and players that can impact the game in all three phases that we cannot
feel—there’s just no room for that. I hope and believe that we are mature enough and
honest enough with ourselves and with each other that this is a team that is going to be
hungry for a win. There’s a lot of reasons. And it’s the NFL. There’s a lot of pride in what we
do and for us as well, this is another great opportunity and test to go again on the road, in
division, as you head into late November, early December. These are football games that
we need to win.”
(On RB Travis Etienne Jr.’s nomination for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award) “Yeah, he’ll
also be nominated as a game captain as well this week. So, T.J. [Travis Etienne], since we
got here has really done nothing but try to be the best version of himself. I think he’s really
dominated his role in terms of wanting to improve in the areas that we talked about wanting
to improve, consistently putting good things on tape from his habits in practice, from his
preparation during the week with Chad [Running Backs Coach Chad Morton], with his
preparation on his body and his treatment. Just have been so pleased with T.J.’s
consistency throughout this time with him and then the playmaking, you can’t argue guys
that go out and make people miss and get hard yards and have been a huge reason why
we’ve had the success that we’ve had this season.”
(On Etienne’s leadership in the running backs room) “Yeah, T.J. was a guy that got
numerous votes for captain when we did the voting. And I think that obviously, past history
always helps from a team standpoint. A lot of the guys that have been here, but when you
have three rookies in the room that you’re consistently trying to elevate and raise the
standards in the room, and not just that room, but all rooms. And Chad obviously has tried
to do that and lead that, but you don’t do those things without a guy who’s setting the tone,
who’s able to follow and push that message and try to lead that room. So, in his own way,
he’s not the most vocal guy out there, rah-rah, that’s not him, but he’s done it by the way
that he walks through, the way that he meets, the way that he practices, has all been within
a high standard and I’ve appreciated that.”
(On QB Trevor Lawrence’s footwork in the spring and how it has translated to games) “I
think there’s a lot of good examples of his footwork looking more and more what we’re
trying to get to. And it was a great example of the touchdown to Parker [WR Parker
Washington] last week where it was play action, stepped up in the pocket. I talked about
that opposite pec movement, one-hitch throw. There was numerous others where you just
see—the more and more we can continue to have Trev be grounded and get all of his cleats
in the ground to generate as much power and accuracy as possible. Typically, we talk about
that boxer mentality to where you’re always in a position to be able to throw a punch,
always in a position to be able to throw the ball when you get toesy as a quarterback or
really any player for that matter when you’re on your toes or your momentum is going up
and down, well then it has to come back to this position to throw. So, we’re constantly
working on that, and I think that from a footwork standpoint, I’ve been pleased with him.”
(On if the offense has found a grove since the BYE Week) “I think that there’s probably a
little bit more, if you look at the negative plays, I think that that’s maybe an area in which
we’ve made some growth and some strides with a.) the penalties. The penalties of being in
second-and-XL so often, you could look at pre-BYE in a lot of ways where you’re in second-
and-15, second-and-20, second-and-12, second-and-13 those are hard downs. Hard drives
to overcome when you have negatives on a drive. So, I think that’s one area of improvement
we’ve made and then, just the consistent execution. You have 70 plays in a game, you’re
looking for obviously like 80-plus percent execution. You’re not always going to win, you’re
not always going to make the one-on-one play that’s football, but from an execution,
mental error, mental assignment, alignment, execution, I think that has improved over the
last x amount of weeks.”
(On his assessment of DE Travon Walker’s injury) “Yeah, it’s just day-to-day for us. It’s at
this point, pain, there’s things that we can control and there’s things you can’t. And this is
one of those that we can’t really control. It’s an injury that we have to deal with and
hopefully we get him back as soon as possible.”
(On Tulane Head Coach Jon Sumrall) “He’s an absolute stud. I bought his house in
Kentucky then didn’t ever live in it, moved, went to the Rams after that. So Summy and I are
very close. I’ve got a ton of respect for John Sumrall as a man, as a person, as a coach. He
can connect with all walks of life. Recruits, there’s not many better recruiters I’ve been
around at all positions, not just on defense, but the entirety of it. And I know his teams play
their tails off. That’s something that you’ve just continued to see. Our linebackers at
Kentucky that he coached, they’re at his house all the time. He had the players at his house
all the time. There was a natural connection that he had with the players and the people in
the building that you could just see that he has. He’s a football coach. If you talk about like
a ball coach, that’s John Sumrall.”
(On what CB Jourdan Lewis can bring to the table when healthy) “Yeah, it’s great to see him
back out on the practice field as much as possible. And I think Jourdan’s done a great job of
helping those other guys as much as possible without being out on the grass on Sundays.
As much as you can get him out there—he’s just the confidence, the swagger, the
communication, the way he sees the game, that always helps when you got a guy out there.
When you have captains not out in the grass, it’s always hard. And a playmaker, he’s made
some critical plays for us this season. Been very pleased, as I’ve mentioned, with Jarrian
[CB Jarrian Jones] with Bras [CB Christian Braswell], with those guys that have stepped up
and had to play a little bit more because of J-Lew being out. So, you feel confident in those
guys for sure, but it’s always nice to have that depth back.”
(On the plan for introducing WR Brian Thomas Jr. back to the lineup when healthy) “Yeah, I
think you saw—I don’t know if you guys watched practice yesterday a little bit – he brought
some juice to practice yesterday in a big way in terms of being able to get that connection
going again. That’s something that we’re going to need down this stretch and when you
have somebody that, he’s feeling better, he is getting healthier, that’s so big for our offense
to be able to attack people now at all three levels. So, we’ll see what the rep count comes
out to be because you do still have to monitor and make sure that when you have a guy
coming off of a high ankle sprain that plays a position that involves running and cutting and
doing all those things, you want to make sure you’re – similar to Brenton [TE Brenton
Strange], I think you could say, last week – where you’re just trying to make sure that, hey,
we want to get him going. We need to get him going because it’ll help our team and our
offense, just don’t want to make sure you’re putting him in any position that it could end up
hurting it.”
(On if he feels like the team is getting healthier at the right time) “Yeah, there’s a few good—
it’s like two steps forward, one—and down at this time it’s just the way it goes, right guys. At
the end of the season, nobody’s going to feel great but I would agree, to your point, the guys
that are coming back from not playing, you would think that they’d be able to provide a little
bit of a spark just in terms of the way they feel and the way that they can maybe go out and
provide, whether it’s energy, whether it’s just bouncing around out there and playmaking,
that is extremely important down the stretch and as we head into December football. But
the rest of the roster and the guys that have been playing, you’re not feeling like you did in
Week Two or three by any means.”
(On the depth of the team) “Yeah, I think it speaks to we did a nice job in the offseason at
identifying some role players, if you will. And guys that we saw, obviously the physical
football traits, but also the personal intangibles that you’re looking for, whether it was in pro
free agency, whether it was in the draft or post draft in the college free agency world. So
those guys have played meaningful snaps for us whether it’s through special teams,
offense, defense, have all been contributors and as you go throughout this stretch, the
more guys that can help you win, the better. You only have 11 out there every play, but when
you’ve got 13, 14, 15 in terms of guys that have been able to play and impact all three
phases, that’s going to help us tremendously, hopefully down the stretch. And you’re not
thrusting them into roles this late in the season and they’re like, ‘Woah, shoot, this is an
NFL game.’ This is a critical got to have it moment on third down or in the red zone, or in
two-minute or four-minute late in the season when, man, these games obviously really
matter in terms of playoffs and all the implications. And just for us as a team getting better
each week, I think it helps that. Just the nerves and go in and play with a quieted mind.”
(On if he talks to the team about the ‘big picture’) “No, we haven’t talked to any big picture
at all. I honestly could not tell you at all where we stand in terms of where we are, what
implications that every game has. Like I swear to you, I have no idea. So, I think it’s best to
keep it that way for all of us and really just take it one day at a time, one game at a time
because we all know how volatile this league is. And when you’re just steady focused on
improvement and you’re focused on yourselves knowing, okay, this is the team that we’re
playing, this is the players that we have to be aware of, this is their offensive, defensive and
special team structures, but it’s us. It’s us attacking them, it’s our process and our
operation that truly matters. And so, the more we can keep the main thing, the main thing,
the better.”
