While the Lincoln Riley avenue appears closed for NFL teams, they continue to explore what a college-level offensive innovator could bring to the table.
The Cardinals and Jets are expected to meet with former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury about their head coach vacancies, Charles Robinson of Yahoo.com reports.
Two other teams with HC openings said Kingsbury was on their radar but that no interviews were as of yet scheduled. The 39-year-old coach is also being monitored for NFL offensive coordinator jobs, Robinson adds. The Rams contacted Kingsbury about an assistant job late last year.
The Red Raiders fired Kingsbury after this season, but NFL teams took notice of the job he did leading the Big 12 program’s explosive offenses. Kingsbury brought both Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield to Lubbock, Texas, and steered the former to becoming a top-10 pick.
Kingsbury declined a chance to become the University of Houston’s head coach and is on USC’s staff as the program’s OC and quarterbacks coach. While Texas Tech only went 35-40 under Kingsbury, his offenses have obviously attracted NFL franchises — especially given the successes of younger, offensively oriented coaches in recent years. Case Keenum also set NCAA passing records under Kingsbury when they were at Houston together.
A former Red Raiders quarterback, Kingsbury was briefly on the Jets’ roster, in 2005, before transitioning to the CFL and then going into coaching. The Jets attempted to bring Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell in for an interview, but the Cyclones’ coach declined.
So from fired college HC to NFL head coach? OC would be fine but HC?
They are interviewing him with OC position in mind. “We are going in another direction, but how about this?” Happens all the time.
Agreed they’re probably interviewing him for an OC spot especially if they hire a defensive minded coach like Fangio for example
Never a good idea to not allow the HC to have a say in the assistant coaches. You are basically forcing your new HC to work with who you want.
So Kliff Kingsbury has a coaching record of 35-40 and 19-35 in the Big 12 and was fired yet the Jets and Cardinals are interviewing him for head coach. What world am I living in.
Huh? Kliff who?
Was he on Cheers?
Creative offenses are the rage and the college game has some of the most innovative minds. Kingsbury is one. USC would not be hiring him as their OC otherwise. You pair him up with a veteran defensive guy with head coaching experience like a wade phillips or Romeo crenell and you get other experienced guys in the coach’s room and all kingsbury has to do is design an offense and meet with the media. No recruiting headaches. No academic issues. No 19 year old’s away from home for the first time. Give him a young gun with potential like a josh Rosen or a Sam darnold and It can work even if he didn’t win in a college game which is stacked for a handful of schools. What do the jets or cardinals have to lose? Can they be any worse than they have been? The NFL is an offensive game and a qb League. If this moves darnold along then it is a success. Not like jets are going to the Super Bowl any time soon regardless of the coach.