Kliff Kingsbury and Lincoln Riley played together; now they’ll coach together
Time really is a flat circle, as some would say. The USC Trojans hired Kliff Kingsbury (again), and now he will work closely with Caleb Williams, Miller Moss, and Malachi Nelson as part of Lincoln Riley’s staff.
However, there’s one interesting tidbit: Riley and Kingsbury played football together at Texas Tech under Mike Leach. Now, Riley and Kingsbury are on the same staff at USC.
When Mike Leach died last year, we wrote that “USC head coach Lincoln Riley was a walk-on quarterback at Texas Tech in 2002, playing one season for Mike Leach. Riley was stuck behind a guy you might remember — Kliff Kingsbury — on the depth chart.”
Kingsbury and Riley played together, and USC hired Kingsbury during Clay Helton’s tenure before Kingsbury — just five weeks into the job — left town and took the head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals. Now, after being fired by the Cardinals, Kingsbury landed back at USC under Lincoln Riley.
You just can’t make this stuff up, and the decision to bring in Kliff Kingsbury is good for both sides. The Trojans get a veteran coach who can work closely with the quarterbacks, and Kingsbury can have a chance to rebound after a disappointing time as an NFL head coach.
With Caleb Williams, Miller Moss, and Malachi Nelson on the roster, Kingsbury has a ton of talent to work with in Southern California.
