Cardinals to interview USC offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury
Jan 8, 2019, 6:10 AM | Updated: 10:59 am
(AP Photo/Brad Tollefson, File)
The Arizona Cardinals will interview former Texas Tech head coach and USC offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury on Tuesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported.
The report was confirmed by 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s John Gambadoro, who added Tuesday that the Jets were “pushing hard” to make Kingsbury their next head coach and did not want him to travel to Arizona.
The news comes following a period in which NFL teams were reportedly not interviewing Kingsbury because the school was denying interview requests for their recently-hired offensive coordinator. But multiple reports indicated Monday that the moratorium on Kingsbury interviews had ended, and teams were now expected to talk to the 39-year-old.
In addition, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said on Monday that the Cardinals and Kingsbury have “strong mutual interest” in one another.
Multiple reports indicated that the New York Jets had interviewed Kingsbury on Monday.
Before taking the offensive coordinator position at USC, Kingsbury was most recently the head coach of Texas Tech but was fired after leading the team to a 5-7 record in 2018. In six seasons as the Red Raiders head coach, Kingsbury had just two winning seasons and never finished with a winning record in Big 12 conference games.
Kingsbury has coached quarterbacks with NFL experience during his time in college, including Case Keenum and Johnny Manziel as an assistant coach with Houston and Texas A&M.
At Texas Tech, Kingsbury coached Patrick Mahomes and briefly coached Baker Mayfield before the latter transferred to Oklahoma to end his college career.