Kliff Kingsbury Joining USC's Staff Is Such A Hilarious Move On So Many Different Levels
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So get this. Kliff Kingsbury heads to USC to take a lesser position than the Trojans hired him for all the way back in December 2018.
Imagine if you'd told Kingsbury that once he signed on to chase his NFL dream by hitching his wagon to Kyler Murray and the shit show Arizona Cardinals organization, he'd be right back with USC in a lesser position over four years later.
Shoutout to Tej Seth for digging deep into the Twitter archives and excavating this gem:
If you've been reading my shit for a while, you know I'm the resident "document pretty much every negative development related to the Arizona Cardinals" guy. I don't have a stake in the fight. I just watch and record from afar while Kyler swings in the park, constantly talking about how "easy" shit is. Meanwhile, there's a raging franchise inferno blazing around him and the Cardinals have won jack shit of consequence in his four years with the team.
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What I'm getting to here is that Lincoln Riley was the guy who took Kyler in at Oklahoma, elevated him to a Heisman Trophy winner and positioned him to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Riley's latest Heisman QB, Caleb Williams is another surefire first pick in the 2024 draft. He would've been in that spot this year if he were eligible.
As you can see from Tom Pelissero's news-breaking tweets, Kingsbury has had quite a stable of signal-callers to work with in the past. Somehow, the results haven't panned out at either the college or professional levels.
Yet here we are again with Kingsbury stumbling into another extraordinary opportunity.
Here's the craziest shit of all: If Kyler doesn't rebound from his torn ACL and make major strides in 2023 to help the Cardinals avoid an abysmal season, there's a very real chance they'll be among the top contenders to acquire Williams.
NFL dot com's latest power rankings have the Cardinals in 32nd place. I checked the four-letter network as well. Same thing. Bear in mind, too, Arizona has multiple, serious red flags being raised about owner Michael Bidwill. Not sure how this isn't a bigger story. Maybe because it's the Cardinals but IDK. Any time I breathe about Kyler it gets mad pageviews.
Can you imagine how awkward that Williams-to-Arizona possibility would be, though?
Kingsbury gets chased out of the desert way early. Goes to USC. Williams becomes the second guy ever to win a second Heisman. The Cardinals suck as expected, post the NFL's worst record, and are in position to land Williams atop next year's draft. You'd think Arizona would want to talk to Williams' position coach as part of their evaluation. Only problem is it's, um, a guy they fired less than a year into a mega contract extension and still have to pay for roughly half a decade.
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The dream scenario: New Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort was in the Patriots' front office during the Spygate scandal. Who knows what his or anyone's role was in all that cheating fuckery, but could the NFL please, as belated penance, force him to tap his phones and bug his offices if and when Arizona has to do its due diligence on Caleb Williams for the 2024 draft? Even better, if you could make it a meta gag, laugh at yourselves for being so stupid and post it on social media, it'd break the damn Internet. Then you have the drama of whatever Kyler's future would hold on top of it all.
Since Kyler just signed an extension of his own, it'd be hell to move his contract as it stands. I haven't given up on the guy's career yet since he's such an extraordinary talent. However, as special as Kyler is in a lot of ways, he's emphatically not Caleb Williams. This guy might prove to be one of the best, cleanest QB prospects in NFL Draft history.
Sorry for not being sorry about that outside-of-reality tangent I just went on about wiretapping and stuff. If we were all blessed enough for this set of circumstances to arise, Kingsbury would have the most vile, vicious things to say about Bidwill and the Cardinals. To the point where I bet he'd basically tell Williams to pull an Eli Manning and refuse to go to Arizona. It's definitely in play.
Circling back to the Kliff of it all and his new trajectory. Once he went to Thailand, it seemed like he was leaning toward maybe taking a year off coaching. Instead, Kingsbury is going to set himself up for a pretty sweet offensive coordinator gig in the next year or two. Then I see him either returning to the NFL as a play-caller, or snagging a head college coaching job after that. Just seems to be how these things work. There isn't a better man to work for in the collegiate ranks right now than Riley. His reputation as an offensive mind is unparalleled, as is his ability to get the absolute most out of star quarterbacks.
If you'd like a slightly more detailed portrait of Kingsbury's life since the Cardinals gave him the pink slip, please check out Nate's updates from early in the offseason.
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Seems like Kingsbury is rested, recharged, and ready to revitalize his coaching career. Alliteration aside, I feel like Riley hiring Kingsbury is a luxury move. By that I mean, hey Lincoln, FIX YOUR DAMN DEFENSE. Because which impartial football purist doesn't want to see Caleb Williams play for a national championship? He will if you can form any kind of respectable unit on that other side of the ball.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok