When word dropped that Texas Tech had decided to fire Kliff Kingsbury, the assumption was the Red Raiders’ former head coach wouldn’t be unemployed for long. The only question that existed was whether he’d stay in college in some capacity or head to the NFL, where his high-powered offense would be a perfect fit considering the direction the league is headed.
Scott Schrader of Trojan Insider reported last week that Kingsbury will leave the state of Texas for the first time in his coaching career, as he’s headed to the Pac-12 to serve as the offensive coordinator of USC. That was initially refuted by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, who said Kingsbury was continuing to keep his options open, namely due to interest from NFL teams, but on Tuesday, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic confirmed that Kingsbury was indeed headed to L.A. to take over the Trojans offense.
BREAKING: Kliff Kingsbury has agreed to a deal with #USC, per source.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 4, 2018
The job running the Trojan offense opened up earlier this week, when it was announced offensive coordinator Tee Martin would not return in the wake of the school announcing embattled head coach Clay Helton will be on the sideline for the 2019 campaign.
While Kingsbury’s time as the head coach of his alma mater was less than ideal — he finished 35-40 with four of his six teams registering sub-.500 records — it was never because of a lack of offense. Texas Tech would carve opposing defenses up, especially through the air, due to Kingsbury’s high-flying air raid offense. This season, the team was 12th nationally in total offense, 16th in points per game, and 26th in offensive S&P+.
The thought of Kingsbury getting to focus full-time on being an offensive coordinator is exciting. The last time he had this role, it was at Texas A&M, and under his watch, Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy. He’ll oversee an offense with gobs of talent in Los Angeles — most notably J.T. Daniels, the former five-star quarterback recruit who had his ups and downs as a freshman — and while time will tell if this marriage works, Trojan fans would be right to be optimistic.
