It wasn’t just the Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets who were interested in former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury before he ultimately opted for the desert.
During his month-long run as the USC offensive coordinator, Kingsbury reportedly turned down a whopping seven job offers to become an offensive coordinator in the NFL. In addition to this, he turned down multiple high-profile college jobs.
According to Kliff Kingsbury's agent @ErikBurkhardt: While with USC, KK turned down 7 NFL coordinator jobs and multiple lucrative college jobs including with CFP bound teams.
The buyout existed if an opportunity came that he couldn't turn down… like being an NFL head coach.
— Kayce Smith (@KayceSmith) January 10, 2019
The drama behind the scenes involving Kingsbury and Trojans athletic director Lynn Swann is by now well known. Swann initially blocked interviews Kingsbury sought at the NFL level before the head coach himself moved on from the program to go after a job in the pros.
It makes sense that USC wouldn’t want Kingsbury to depart the program for an offensive coordinator job in the NFL. But once the Cards and Jets showed interest, the school should’ve let him do his thing.
As it is, Kingsbury is now the latest in a long line of young, offensive-minded head coaches in the NFL. Whether that works out for the Cardinals remains to be seen.