JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Liam Coen was angry.
The Jacksonville Jaguars had just upset the San Francisco 49ers 26-21 at Levi's Stadium -- giving Coen the biggest victory to date in his first season as a head coach.
But instead, Coen was focused on letting 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh know he didn't appreciate Saleh's comments three days earlier.
When talking about the Jaguars days before the game, Saleh said Coen and the Jaguars staff have a "really advanced signal stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. They do a great job with it."
After the game, Saleh tried to tell Coen that he meant what he said as a compliment, but Coen wasn't buying it.
"Keep my name outta your mouth. Keep my name out of your f----- mouth," he told Saleh. Saleh got angry and rebutted "I will f--- your world up."
Players and staffers got between the two, and Coen got a bear hug from executive vice president of football operations Tony Boselli as they headed to the locker room. It was the talk of NFL media for days following.
It wasn't the first time Coen's fiery personality has been on display since becoming the Jaguars' coach in January, but it was the most visible example of it for those outside the franchise. Fans loved it, and so did some players -- defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah had a giant smile on his face as he helped move Coen away.
The don't-back-down, go-take-it attitude is not only a vital part of who Coen is, it's also the culture he's trying to establish for a franchise that for much of the past 20 years has too often been on the opposite side. He developed the attitude as a high school quarterback who never got the big-school scholarship offer he craved and further fed it at UMass, where he led the Minutemen to the 2006 Division I-AA national championship game and still holds six career passing records.
While working under Sean McVay at the Los Angeles Rams -- whom the Jaguars play on Sunday (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network) at London's Wembley Stadium -- he learned he didn't have to hide that part of his personality because McVay stressed the importance of being genuine.
"You've got to have a chip on your shoulder," running back Travis Etienne Jr. said. "We play for the Jacksonville Jaguars, man. Think about the last time we really had sustained success. Never really had that in this organization. He was brought here to turn it around. He wasn't brought here to be the same. He's not trying to follow that same route.
"We needed something different. He brings that, and of course he's going to have a chip on his shoulder. This is the first time he wants to show the world that he is deserving of this spot. You've always got people who are always out there just doubting you."
And Coen's chip has been around for a while.
"I wasn't really a trash talker, necessarily, [in college] but I was pretty limited athletically and so had to use the mind as a weapon as well and to try to get yourself in competitive mode to play," Coen said.
COEN LEARNED THE importance of establishing a consistent culture under McVay, in Coen's stints with the Rams as the assistant receivers coach (2018-19), assistant quarterbacks coach (2020) and offensive coordinator (2022). He saw McVay doing that in a way that wasn't exactly old school: McVay made his team and staff feel appreciated.
That didn't mean McVay was soft, though. He set high standards and expected everyone -- whether that be players, staff or coaches -- to meet them. All of it resonated with Coen, who has instilled a similar physically and mentally tough culture in Jacksonville.
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula said one thing that stood out about Coen during his time with the Rams was the way he related to everyone.
"The main thing that sticks out to me about him is he's a connector," said Shula, who has been with the Rams in various defensive roles since 2017. "He is a people person. He gets along with everybody. He was an assistant receivers coach, but he was a guy that everybody on the defense knew and everybody loved, the whole coaching staff.
"You knew he had it in him. ... He's definitely a guy that can get guys to believe because he knows football. He loves football and those guys are following him."
Video clips from the Jaguars' official social accounts of Coen addressing the locker room postgame have gone viral on social media. In his short speech to the players after the Jaguars' 31-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, which included Devin Lloyd's 99-yard interception return for a touchdown and Trevor Lawrence's game-winning TD run, Coen was edgy and effusive, saying:
"Talk about resilience. Down 14-0. Come back! One play at a time. How about Devin f---- Lloyd. ... Not much we do is truly the most pretty thing in the world. But guess what? Winning feels good! Winning feels real good!
"We compete our butts off and good s--- will happen. ... I'm so proud of you guys! I'm so proud of the way you compete. And I'm so proud to be your coach."
Start your day off right with Liam Coen's incredible post game victory speech 🗣️
— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2025
(via @Jaguars) pic.twitter.com/7855X87zcU
In another video, he was measured, deliberate, and positive after the team's 20-12 loss to Seattle, in which the Jaguars committed 10 penalties (including one that wiped out a touchdown) and missed a field goal and extra point.
"This is the opportunity we've said is going to come at some point. Adversity. Everyone says how great we are all this, and we are. We are a f------ good team but we can't beat who?"
Players: "Ourselves."
"In all three phases we definitely did not help ourselves for the majority of the time," Coen continues. "That's the reality. Did we play our butts off? Yeah. I don't think we're ever not going to play our butts off."
"We have got by and we have won some of these games because of this [points to his chest]. We made a lot of great plays, but because we've got heart. Because we play our butts off. But in times where we got to go execute and not hurt ourselves, men, that showed up today. That's just the reality."
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LAWRENCE HAD DYAMI Brown in the end zone against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 2, but his throw was a bit high and Brown couldn't make the catch.
Coen wasn't happy, and he made sure Lawrence knew that after the play by pounding his chest and yelling for Lawrence to put the ball on Brown's chest to make it easier to catch.
Lawrence gave him a dismissive wave from the field and said he wasn't bothered by Coen's outburst.
"Coach is really passionate, which is something that I've noticed ever since he's been here, and I love that about him," Lawrence said. "He'll get fired up. You know, there's times where I'm not always that way -- I'm kind of a little more even-keeled. But he's honestly brought a little bit more of that out of me, which I think has been good for our offense. I kind of feed off of him, and there are times we get excited and get fired up."
That was one of the first things Coen said he learned from McVay: You can have moments like that with your players as long as they know you care, have their best interest in mind, and aren't phony.
"I remember the first team meeting [with McVay] was just different than anything I'd ever been a part of in terms of the way he communicated, the way he interacted, but also the honesty," Coen said earlier this year. "Like his ability to stand in front of a group of dudes, take ownership when maybe things didn't go our way, or making sure the players knew [that], 'I can do a better job as a coach, putting you in a position to be successful.' ...
"So much of his accountability, whether it's in the media, whether it's with the players, whether it's with the coaches, anytime we would go through adverse situations, typically he would point to himself first and I always respected that a ton."
Coen has also done that this season and it doesn't come across as phony or forced, according to McVay.
"I think it's authentic," McVay said earlier this week. "I think he's passionate. You can see that quarterback background. He's fiery, but he also knows when to be able to stay steady. I think he picks and chooses his spots accordingly. But I think the most important thing is authenticity. That's exactly what he's been."
That's something that has been missing, with a few exceptions, over the past two decades in Jacksonville.
Since making the postseason in four consecutive seasons from 1996-99, the Jaguars have had pockets of success -- playoff appearances in 2005, 2007, 2017 and 2022 and back-to-back winning seasons just twice (2004-05 and 2022-23) -- but nothing sustained. Coen has gotten the Jaguars off to a 4-2 start that includes victories over the 49ers and Chiefs.
The biggest difference between the past two seasons -- when the Jaguars lost 15 of their last 18 games -- and now is the feeling inside the building, defensive end Josh Hines-Allen said.
"[Coen's] brought that take-it mentality," said Hines-Allen, who was the team's first-round draft pick in 2019. "I think that's pretty cool. And I love being able to be the bully and just to take it from somebody else because that's something that we haven't done in a long time. So just to have that mentality and that mindset is really cool, that feistiness.
"We should all play with a fire inside of us as a football player, but that take-it mentality, I thought it was really cool that he said that and I think we're kind of honed into that."
ESPN's Rams reporter Sarah Barshop contributed to this story.