Kingsbury lands job on Riley's USC staff

Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury. Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Kliff Kingsbury lands job on Lincoln Riley's USC staff

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Larry Brown | Last updated 4/10/23

Kliff Kingsbury has landed a new job.

Kingsbury has reportedly been in talks with USC for months about joining Lincoln Riley’s coaching staff. Apparently that will be happening.

Can confirm via sources that Kliff Kingsbury is slated to join the USC football staff in a role working with quarterbacks, as @TomPelissero reported. Talks have been happening for months, and he’s expected to join in the near future.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 11, 2023

Kingsbury will reportedly have a position of senior offensive analyst. According to Bruce Feldman, Kingsbury’s role will include game-planning, watching film with Riley, and working with the team’s quarterbacks.

Source tells @TheAthletic that a big part of Kliff Kingsbury's role at USC will be in game-planning, watching film with Lincoln Riley, and he will be in the QB meetings.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) April 11, 2023

Kingsbury just completed a four-year tenure as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. He went 28-37-1 and made the playoffs once.

The team went 11-6 in 2021 but faded down the stretch. Their losing towards the end of the 2021 season seemed to carry over into 2022, where the team went 4-13.

Kyler Murray suffered a season-ending injury in December, further derailing the team’s season.

Prior to becoming the head coach of the Cardinals, Kingsbury coached at Texas Tech for six seasons. The Red Raiders went 35-40 under him and made three bowl games.

Arizona had interest in Kingsbury because they were planning on drafting Murray. They wanted a coach who had familiarity with coaching an offense similar to the one Murray ran at Oklahoma. Kingsbury had coached Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech.

What’s interesting is that Kingsbury briefly held the role of USC offensive coordinator. He was hired in December 2018 by the Trojans, following his firing by Texas Tech.

But Kingsbury backed out of the job after about a month once he started to receive interest from NFL teams for a head coach job. Now that his time as an NFL head coach has come to an end, he is ready to return to USC.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: