COEN

It’s perfect, isn’t it? Liam Coen, the kid who played for his father, Tim, at La Salle, helped lead the Rams to four consecutive Division I Super Bowls and was the Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior in 2003, will return home this week poised to become the greatest quarterback in the history of University of Massachusetts football.

Barring a major breakdown Saturday at the University of Rhode Island’s Meade Stadium, Coen will break the UMass career passing record. And with another year to play, every UMass passing record should be his by the end of his collegiate career.

“This will be a special game for him, no question,” UMass coach Don Brown said this week. “When you go home to play in your home state, it’s always a special game.”

This will likely be Coen’s last Rhode Island appearance as a collegian because URI is scheduled to visit UMass in 2008. A redshirt junior, Coen will start the game with 6,920 career passing yards, 99 shy of the record of 7,018 set by Todd Bankhead in 1998 and 1999. He broke the school’s touchdown pass record last weekend when he threw three in a 48-34 victory at William & Mary.

While the stats he has compiled and the acclaim he has earned are rewarding, Coen is a team player with only one thing on his mind when he crosses the line and takes charge in the huddle.

“All he cares about is winning,” Brown said.

With Coen in command this season, the Minutemen are 7-1, 5-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association, and ranked third in the current Sports Network FCS poll. Their only loss was to Boston College, and that only 24-14. Last year they were 13-2, the losses to Navy and to Appalachian State in the I-AA championship game. The 2005 Minutemen finished 7-4 after Coen, a redshirt freshman, came off the bench in the second game of the season at Colgate, started the next game at Albany and led the Minutemen to a five consecutive victories.

Coen has done just about everything at UMass except win a national championship. He is 26-6 as a starter, 26-3 against FCS teams. He was the Atlantic 10 rookie of the week three times in 2005. He was third-team All-Atlantic 10 as a sophomore in 2006, when he finished sixth in the nation in passing efficiency, completed 65 percent of his passes, a UMass record, was A-10 offensive player of the week twice and New England Gold Helmet Award winner twice.

This season, Coen is one of 18 candidates for the Walter Payton Award as the best player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision. He won his third Gold Helmet Award for his performance in the overtime game against Villanova. He has completed 130 of 197 passes, 66 percent, for 1,729 yards and 18 touchdowns.

Coen’s name already appears on 30 UMass record lists. He is first in passing efficiency (153.23) and completion percentage (64.84) and second in completions (522), attempts (805) and passing yards (6,920). He is 39 completions shy of that record and 128 passes shy of the attempts record. He is second in the Colonial Athletic Association and ninth in the nation in passing efficiency.

And he is doing it all on an injured knee, which demonstrates how tough he is.

“He’s mentally tough,” Brown said. “He’s physically tough. To be honest, he didn’t practice much last week. We were able to put him together with a little baling wire, and it functioned pretty well. In terms of keeping his cool under fire and leading our football team and doing the things you have to do to be successful, he does all those things.”

URI coach Tim Stowers knows Coen well. His son T.J. was a teammate of Coen’s at La Salle.

“He’s way above average. He’s a very good field general. I think he does a very good job of managing the game. A lot of that comes from being a coach’s son. You grow up being a coach’s son, football in infused to you, and the schemes and the finer points of football are infused in you and in your mind at a very young age. I think that’s really helped Liam be a great quarterback.”

mszostak@projo.com