Kliff Kingsbury compiled a 35-40 record during his time as the head coach at Texas Tech, including three straight losing seasons to end his tenure in Lubbock. While there is no doubt he is a brilliant offensive coach, few expected him to land a head coaching job this offseason, much less one at the NFL level, given that record.
That said, as soon as he was let go, he became a hot commodity for teams looking for a new offensive coordinator at the college and professional level. He quickly agreed to a deal to become USC’s new offensive coordinator, which seemed like a perfect fit as he would take over an offense in need of upgrading and, quite possibly, become the head coach in due time once the Trojans decided to move on from Clay Helton.
However, the NFL is a copycat league and with the success of Sean McVay and the Rams, everyone is trying to find the next McVay. That suddenly made a great offensive coach with an extremely mediocre college resume a top candidate for NFL head coaching vacancies, and it appears Kingsbury has left USC as quickly as he arrived in order to take the head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals.
Per sources, Kliff Kingsbury is finalizing a deal to become the Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals. @nflnetwork @gmfb @NFLonFOX
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) January 8, 2019
USC had been blocking Kingsbury from interviewing with other teams, but on Monday reports came out that he was indeed taking interviews and had left USC. The Cardinals and Jets were named as the two teams most interested in Kingsbury, and Arizona appears to have moved swiftly to land their man as they hope he can click with their top draft pick from last year in quarterback Josh Rosen to make a potent coach-quarterback combo in the same division as McVay.
