The Cardinals' hire of Kliff Kingsbury is a brutal turn of events for USC
Kliff Kingsbury’s time at USC was short-lived.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Kingsbury was hired as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, where he will replace Steve Wilks after a 3-13 season.
It’s a remarkable turn of events for the 39-year-old Kingsbury, who was fired by Texas Tech, his alma mater, on Nov. 25. Ten days later, Kingsbury signed on to join Clay Helton’s staff at USC as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach despite multiple NFL teams expressing interest in his services — presumably, at that point, in an assistant-coaching role.
Later on, however, it became clear that professional teams were after Kingsbury as a head coach. As Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson reported, the Cardinals and New York Jets pursued formal interviews with Kingsbury. USC athletic director Lynn Swann, at first, reportedly blocked those interviews from happening. One report even said that Kingsbury would resign from USC in order to pursue NFL openings. However that all transpired, it culminated with Kingsbury interviewing and ultimately landing the top job with the Cardinals.
What does this mean for USC?
It was a surprise to many when Helton kept his job as USC’s head coach after a 5-7 record in 2018, the program’s first losing season since 2000. In an effort to turn things around, Helton was tasked with drastically reworking his staff. The Kingsbury hire was a big one.
Helton was set to turn over the reins of his offense to Kingsbury with play-calling duties and everything. Kingsbury would have had a chance to work with quarterback JT Daniels, a five-star recruit who graduated high school early to play for the Trojans last fall. He showed flashes of brilliance, but also looked like a freshman.
Kingsbury has deservedly garnered a reputation for developing quarterbacks. He is the guy who brought the likes of Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes — both of whom were unheralded recruits — to Lubbock. At TTU, Kingsbury always got the ball into the hands of playmakers. USC has no shortage of them, with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyler Vaughns at receiver, and Stephen Carr and Vavae Malepeai at running back.
In its press release announcing the hire of Kingsbury, USC touted that Texas Tech finished ranked in the national top 10 in passing yards and in the top 20 in total offense while averaging at least 30 points per game in each of Kingsbury’s seasons as head coach. His hire seemed like a recipe for a big turnaround for the Trojans, who finished 48th in passing yards, 83rd in total offense and averaged 26.1 points per game.
Now Helton, already poised to top most hot-seat lists entering the 2019 season, has been left at the altar by Kingsbury and will have to search for a new coordinator very late in the college hiring cycle.
That is a brutal turn of events for USC, and all it will reportedly get is $150K.
As per the terms of his contract negotiated by @ErikBurkhardt at #USC, Kliff Kingsbury owes the school a $150K buyout to resign and take the #AZCardinals head coaching job. The team is expected to handle that.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 8, 2019
Why would NFL teams be interested in Kingsbury?
Kingsbury’s Texas Tech teams were always exciting to watch — on offense. The Red Raiders worked an up-tempo air raid style (that Kingsbury learned under Mike Leach) that scored a ton of points. But defensive shortcomings hampered the program during Kingsbury’s six seasons. Overall, he had a 35-40 (19-35 Big 12) record at TTU, including a 5-7 mark in 2018. It was the third time in his tenure that the Red Raiders failed to reach the postseason.
So why would NFL teams go after a coach who was fired by his own alma mater? Offense, of course. Kingsbury coached Mahomes, who has taken the NFL by storm in his second season with the Kansas City Chiefs. Robinson noted Kingsbury as the latest example of NFL teams pursuing “young, progressive offensive coaches who fit the mold of the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay and the Chicago Bears’ Matt Nagy.”
In three seasons as a coordinator at the University of Houston and Texas A&M and six seasons as a head coach at Texas Tech, Kingsbury guided five offenses that finished in the top five in scoring in the nation. Inside that span, he was credited with identifying both Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield as quarterback prospects, while also helping to develop Case Keenum, Johnny Manziel and Davis Webb into NFL players. Perhaps more important, the offenses Kingsbury developed were often layered and molded to the skills of his players, creating success with players who had varied strengths and weaknesses.
In Arizona, Kingsbury has the chance to develop ex-UCLA star Josh Rosen, who was chosen with the No. 10 selection of the 2018 NFL draft. He had the growing pains you’d expect from a rookie quarterback on a bad team. In 14 games (13 starts), Rosen threw for 2,278 yards, 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions while completing 55.2 percent of his passes.
At Texas Tech, Kingsbury had a hard time recruiting defensive players to compete against the high-powered offenses of programs like Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in the Big 12. Obviously, that won’t be an issue at the professional level, but his choice for defensive coordinator will be critical.
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