There was a lot of excitement surrounding the Arizona Cardinals in 2019. Arizona had just hired former Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury, one of college football’s most innovative offensive minds. And the Cardinals held the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, which they’d use on Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray.
Kingsbury and Murray looked like a perfect pairing. Kingsbury seemed like the perfect coach to take advantage of Murray’s dynamic dual-threat abilities. After a strong start, things appeared to sour between player and coach before Kingsbury was dismissed after the 2022 season.
Now, for the first time since Kingsbury’s firing, the pair will face one another as Kingsbury, the offensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders, comes to Glendale on Sunday to battle Murray and the Cardinals.
Murray met with the media this week and was asked if he could provide the defense any tips on Kingsbury’s defense, to which he replied, “No.”
Murray didn’t seem to want to talk too much about Kingsbury, but he did indicate that he has seen him since his firing.
“I’ve seen him since, just out and about,” Murray said.
Then, he was asked about facing him as a competitor for the first time.
“To be honest, I’ve done it before,” Murray said. “I’ve competed against him before and many other coaches that I’ve been coached by. It doesn’t really affect me. My goal is to go out and win the game.”
While Murray was professional and didn’t take any shots at Kingsbury, he didn’t praise him either.
As for Kingsbury, he also kept it professional.
“The one major thing I try to do is make sure this was Year One of the Commanders’ offense, not Year Five of the Arizona Cardinals,” Kingsbury said on Thursday via Darren Urban of azcardinals.com. “We did things (in Arizona) that we felt (Murray) could be really successful at and then tried to build and let (Murray) grow and us grow together. We wanted to make sure I didn’t start at some point that would overwhelm anybody.”
Murray and Kingsbury will likely shake hands before or after Sunday’s game, but you can bet both badly want this one. Last week, Bengals cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt took shots at Kingsbury’s offense, calling it a “nice college offense,” Kingsbury and the Commanders proceeded to score 38 points and defeat Cincinnati on Monday Night Football.
Will Kingsbury have a similar chip on his shoulder on Sunday?