USC Football hires Kliff Kingsbury

Last night, news broke about a major hiring at the University of Southern California. It is being reported that USC has decided to hire former college and NFL head coach, Kliff Kingsbury.

Kingsbury, 43, was a college quarterback at Texas Tech University. He played under offensive geniuses like Dana Holgorsen and Mike Leach. He would earn Second-team All-Big 12 honors twice (2000 & 2001) and First-team All-Big 12 honors in 2002. That season, he would win the Sammy Baugh Trophy (the nation’s top collegiate passer) and became the AP National Offensive Player of the Year.

He would later be drafted in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. He would serve as the backup to Tom Brady and even earned a Super Bowl championship that year. He would then bounce around the league and had a couple of stints in NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League.

After retiring as a player, he would be reunited with Dana Holgorsen as a coach with the University of Houston. Two years later, after Kevin Sumlin took over as head coach, Kingsbury would be promoted to Co-Offensive Coordinator & Quarterbacks coach. He would eventually follow Sumlin to Texas A&M and coached a Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel.

Kingsbury would get the opportunity to return home to be the Red Raiders' head coach at Texas Tech. During those six seasons, he had an overall record of 35-40 and never finished with a winning record in conference play. However, he does receive some credit while coaching in Lubbock, TX. This is where he helped to develop the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player and two-time Super Bowl champion, Patrick Mahomes.

Kingsbury would eventually be fired and briefly agreed to join the Clay Helton coaching staff at USC. He would decide to go in a different direction a couple of weeks later by agreeing to terms with the NFL franchise, the Arizona Cardinals. He would end up coaching the number 1 pick and Heisman Trophy winner, Kyler Murray. But success in the NFL was hard to come by for him. In four seasons, he only made the playoffs once and finished with a 28-37 overall record.

Now, it is being reported that he has signed on to help work with the quarterbacks at USC. Honestly, they do not need this position since Lincoln Riley has taken over those duties when he started.
However, this move could help free him up and turn his attention to other weaknesses with this football team. The official announcement and details of Kingsbury’s contract have not been disclosed.