USC Football: Cardinals and Jets to reportedly interview OC Kliff Kingsbury for head coaching vacancy

USC fans may want to hold their breath for awhile here. Just when you thought you could be happy with Kliff Kingsbury and the Trojans, in comes the NFL. Per Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals are expected to conduct formal interviews with Kingsbury for their vacant head coaching positions.

Kingsbury’s name has been thrown around for a few NFL offensive coordinating positions after he was fired from Texas Tech. He ultimately took the offensive coordinating job at USC. In multiple interviews, Kingsbury has expressed that he wanted to come to the Trojans and help turn their offense around after a dismal 5-7 season. In an interview on the Dan Patrick show, Kingsbury stated that he is still intrigued by the NFL because of how they adopted college concepts, however he wanted to see how he could turn things around at USC.

The Jets fired their head coach Todd Bowels after four seasons with the team, following their 38-3 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday. The Arizona Cardinals on the other hand, fired Steve Wilks after only one season as their head coach. Both teams are in the middle of a rebuild and have young quarterbacks in Sam Darnold (Jets) and Josh Rosen (Cardinals) finishing up their rookie seasons. Kingsbury is one of the bright offensive minds in football. During his time at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders offense was in the top ten in total offense and scoring. He also has developed quarterbacks during his time which includes Patrick Mahomes and Johnny Manziel during his Heisman Trophy winning season at Texas A&M in 2012.

NFL teams tend to interview multiple coaches through the search process. With the recent offensive explosion from the Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs, and New Orleans Saints Kingsbury becomes a prime target for many NFL teams despite his lack of NFL coaching experience. It’s already been reported that teams were exploring his buyout at USC to lure him to the NFL. This past weekend, Kingsbury turned down a lucrative offer to become the new head coach at the University of Houston, as reported by Brett McMurphy, which is a good sign for USC.

Despite the potential uplift that Kingsbury could bring with NFL teams, it’s entirely likely that the Cardinals and Jets opt to go with an experienced NFL coach to fill their head coaching void. However stranger things has happened in professional sports. Jets safety Jamal Adams and a few other Jets players seems to like the idea of Kingsbury as the Jets new head coach.