The Arizona Cardinals’ decision to hire Kliff Kingsbury was a risky move from the start.
Kingsbury had just accepted an offensive coordinator position with USC after a 35-40 record as Texas Tech’s head coach. The jump to the NFL with that track record raised eyebrows, and Kingsbury compounded that risk with drafting quarterback Kyler Murray a year after Arizona took Josh Rosen in the top 10.
Apparently, it only took a few minutes for Kingsbury to feel like his tenure in Arizona was doomed.
Kingsbury joined the The Ryen Russillo Podcast this week and he looked back to that Week 1 game against Detroit. The Cardinals were trailing 24-6 in the fourth quarter with his offense looking like a bust, and he really thought the Cardinals were going to fire him. He said via arizonasports.com:
“I’m not exaggerating, I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe I just bought that house. I’m gonna be here two games and they’re gonna fire me.’ That was about the highest anxiety I’ve ever had on the sidelines. Truly anything we tried to do was a complete disaster.”
The Cardinals would eventually rally to tie the game and would have won had Tramaine Brock held onto an easy interception late in overtime.
The game ended in a tie, the Cardinals went 5-10-1 on the season and, no, Kingsbury wasn’t fired.
