Run it back.

That will be the theme on the offensive side of the football for Kentucky in 2023.

The University of Kentucky announced that Liam Coen will be returning to serve as the football program's offensive coordinator this year.

Coen was a first-time FBS offensive coordinator at Kentucky during a 2021 season that saw the Wildcats average more than 200 yards per game on the ground and through the air. Coen is also responsible for bringing Will Levis into the program, and thus giving Kentucky its first bona fide NFL prospect at quarterback in many years.

After UK's Citrus Bowl win against Iowa at the start of the 2022 calendar year Coen left Lexington to become the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, the reigning Super Bowl champions. His history with Sean McVay after working as an assistant for the Rams made the job too good to turn down.

The Rams had a huge staff overhaul coming into this year and the offensive line never clicked. Sean McVay has said the year amounted to professional failure for him, and in recent weeks staff members have jumped offboard for other jobs. Plenty of franchises have proven that the year after a Super Bowl comes with its own set of challenges, but the Rams' 5-12 finish was surprising by anyone's standards.

Coen will return to Lexington with more familiarity with the program's culture and personalities, as well as the realities that face it in the SEC, than any other prospective candidate, and the success of the offense in 2021 instantly caused speculation to center around the 37-year old rising star in the profession.

NC State quarterback Devin Leary announced his plans to transfer to Kentucky weeks ago and the Wildcats locked up a number of other offensive targets from the portal even without the position having been filled. But Mark Stoops has already said that Kentucky's targets have had an idea of the direction he wanted to move in.