Eagles interview Kliff Kingsbury for offensive coordinator vacancy
Eagles interview Kliff Kingsbury for offensive coordinator vacancy originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Kliff Kingsbury, the former Texas Tech and Arizona Cards head coach and a disciple of Mike Leach and his Air Raid Offense, interviewed for the Eagles’ offensive coordinator opening Tuesday, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
Kingsbury, currently USC’s senior offensive analyst, is the first name that’s surfaced for the job held this past year by Brian Johnson.
Kingsbury, 44, was Texas Tech’s head coach from 2013 through 2018 and coached Patrick Mahomes during his three years in Lubbock, from 2014 through 2016. He coached at USC under Lincoln Riley, who was Jalen Hurts’ head coach in 2019 at Oklahoma.
Kingsbury was a quarterback at Texas Tech in the late 1990s and early 2000s, playing three years for Leach’s high-flying pass-first offense and setting seven NCAA records along the way.
He spent four years bouncing around from the Patriots to the Saints to the Broncos to the Jets to the Bills and also had stints in the World League and CFL before starting his coaching career at Houston in 2008 as offensive quality control coach and then offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Kevin Sumlin.
When Sumlin became head coach at Texas A&M in 2012 he brought Kingsbury with him. After one year at A&M, Kingsbury got his first head coaching opportunity at his alma mater, Texas Tech. He went 35-40 in six seasons at Tech and was fired after the 2018 season.
He joined Clay Helton’s USC staff as offensive coordinator but just a few weeks later left USC to become head coach of the Cards, replacing Steve Wilks, who was fired after one season.
The Cards went 28-37-1 in four years under Kingsbury but had top-10 offenses in 2020 and 2021. Haason Reddick was on those Cards teams in 2019 and 2020.
Kingsbury was fired after the 2022 season and in his one year at USC the Trojans went 8-5 but ranked 3rd in the BCS with 41.8 points per game, with Caleb Williams throwing for over 3,600 yards with 30 touchdown passes.
The “run-the-ball” crowd won’t like Kingsbury, a disciple of Leach, whose teams at Texas Tech and Washington State set virtually every NCAA passing record running Leach’s Air Raid offense. During his four years in Arizona, the Cards threw the 7th-most passes in the NFL.
In a conference call with Philadelphia media before the Eagles-Cards game last year, Kingsbury spoke highly of Nick Sirianni.
"I think Nick and Shane Steichen building (the offense) around Jalen (Hurts) and bringing in great pieces obviously, but then the way they’ve adapted to his skill set and really maximized it (has been impressive)," he said according to a story on SI.com
“To be able to come in, adapt to this, build, and continue to evolve with Jalen - it’s impressive to watch. The culture, you can tell those guys are having fun and they’re playing hard for him, so Nick’s done a great job there.”
In his playing career, Kingsbury only played in one game, completing one of two passes for the Jets in the final seconds of a 27-0 loss to the Broncos in Denver. His one career completion went 17 yards to Dante Ridgeway on a 4th-and-21.
The Eagles had the No. 8 offense in the NFL this past year, but they were held under 20 points in five of their last seven games, including the 32-9 wild-card loss to the Bucs that sealed the fate of Johnson as well as defensive coordinators Sean Desai and Matt Patricia.
Whoever replaces Johnson will be the Eagles’ third offensive coordinator in three years. The Eagles had the No. 3 offense in the league in 2022 under Shane Steichen, who became head coach of the Colts after the Super Bowl.
Subscribe to Eagle Eye anywhere you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | RSS | Watch on YouTube
