LOS ANGELES _ The Arizona Cardinals announced Tuesday afternoon that USC offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kliff Kingsbury will be their new head coach, putting an end to a monthlong tenure with the Trojans that started with much promise and ended with yet another gut-punch to the program's ego.
Like USC, the Cardinals had a bad offense that needed fixing and came after Kingsbury, the 39-year-old disciple of Mike Leach's "Air Raid" system who was fired in November after going 35-40 in six seasons as head coach at Texas Tech, his alma mater.
The Cardinals, featuring rookie quarterback Josh Rosen, were last in nearly every offensive category in 2018. They apparently did not need to hear much from Kingsbury on Tuesday to make him an offer to be their head coach.
Kingsbury had interviewed Monday with the New York Jets for their head coaching vacancy and flew to Arizona to talk with the Cardinals on Tuesday morning. By late morning, reports were already surfacing the sides were working to finalize a deal.
Any concerns people around the NFL had about Kingsbury's ability to put together a championship caliber staff without any coaching experience in the league were squashed by the intrigue of a quarterback guru who found current NFL MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes as a lightly recruited prep prospect and developed him at Texas Tech into a first-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Where will the Trojans go from here to return their offense to the program standard? USC coach Clay Helton compared hiring Kingsbury to winning the lottery. Now standing alone with a counterfeit ticket, Helton will have to dust off his offensive coordinator wish list and get to work once again.
"I am happy for Kliff. Any time you get an opportunity to be an NFL head coach, it is special," Helton said. "He is a talented coach, that's why we brought him here. I wish him nothing but the best.
"USC has always attracted the best coaches in the country from all levels. We will spend the upcoming weeks finding the best possible fit for USC and our program."
Kingsbury and USC seemed like a perfect marriage at the right time for both sides.
Kingsbury would have had talented quarterbacks in JT Daniels and Jack Sears to work with along with a number of skilled wide receivers, and, once USC had started producing, Kingsbury would have received the credit and immediately been a candidate once again for a Power Five head coaching position or an NFL offensive coordinator job, perhaps.
If that had come to fruition, then Helton probably would have been able to ride out the storm the 5-7 season in 2018 created and continue to build the program with the support of athletic director Lynn Swann. There was also the hope that Kingsbury's exciting, fast-paced offense would have helped re-engage a frustrated fan base for the 2019 season, the first in the renovated Coliseum.
Kingsbury told the Los Angeles Times last month that he wanted to continue to coach college football instead of possibly joining the Rams, who are coached by friend Sean McVay, because he wanted the chance to affect kids.
The implication was that, all things being equal, Kingsbury still viewed himself as a college football coach.
Once NFL head coaching jobs were on the table, though, his outlook shifted. A college offensive coordinator job, even at a traditional power like USC, can't compete with one of 32 coveted NFL head coaching jobs.
The Cardinals plan to announce Kingsbury at a news conference Wednesday.
