Kliff Kingsbury, a former NFL head coach, was hired by a college head coach as an assistant. This doesn’t happen every day. It is not a normal turn of events within the football coaching industry. Yet, it’s completely understandable when viewed in a larger context.
Kingsbury was ground down by the unforgiving world of the NFL. He had a thoroughly miserable 2022 NFL season with the Arizona Cardinals. It was reasonable to think that Kingsbury would take the year 2023 off and simply rest before looking at a college head coaching job (maybe a coordinator job) in 2024. By working for Lincoln Riley in the capacity of an analyst and not as a coordinator, Kingsbury doesn’t have a massive set of responsibilities. He is focused only on coaching quarterbacks, not designing plays — Lincoln Riley has that job locked down.
This is a chance for Kingsbury to re-enter the coaching industry without having an especially demanding job. He gets to work in Los Angeles with Caleb Williams. Pretty sweet gig. Then he can look for a head coaching job in 2024.
Twitter reacted to the Kingsbury hire, an unexpected big story to hit the college football headlines this week: