Texas Tech football: Kliff Kingsbury will have plenty of weapons at USC

Former Texas Tech football head coach Kliff Kignsbury has landed at USC where he will be the Trojans’ offensive coordinator.

It did not take long for former Texas Tech football head coach Kliff Kingsbury to find a new job. Just over a week after he was officially fired by his alma mater, the 39-year-old has agreed to become the offensive coordinator at USC.

Almost from the moment Kingsbury was let go, rumors began to surface connecting him to the Trojans who fired offensive coordinator Tee Martin and several other assistant coaches last week. Still other reports suggested that NFL teams were interested in bringing aboard the offensive guru, perhaps even as offensive coordinator.

USC said Tuesday that no official announcement about the coaching staff was pending but outlets such as ESPN.com report that Kingsbury and USC have reached an agreement. And Southern Cal is a job that makes perfect sense for a coach with Kingsbury’s reputation for developing star quarterbacks.

The Trojans starting quarterback, JT Daniels, is coming off an up-and-down true freshman season. The former 5-star recruit, who enrolled in school a year early and will not turn 19 until February, has loads of natural talent but struggled when it came to making decisions in his first season at USC.

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In eleven games this year, he threw for 2661 yards 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while completing 59.7% of his passes. Those stats are not bad for a player who could have still been in high school this season but must improve if he is to become the player that his pedigree suggests he could be.

So with a potential star in the making at the game’s most important position, it made perfect sense for the Trojans to bring in arguably the most respected quarterback coach in the game to be their young phenom’s mentor. Kingsbury has worked with the likes of current NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Case Keenum, Baker Mayfield and Davis Webb while also guiding former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel to the 2012 Heisman trophy in his redshirt freshman season.

And perhaps the work that Kingsbury did in 2018 with true freshman Alan Bowman was the best testament to how he can help young quarterbacks take the next step. Unlike Daniels, Bowman was not a blue-chip recruit who was handed the starting job as soon as he stepped on campus.

But when the former three-star recruit was forced into action in the first quarter of the season-opener against Ole Miss, Kingsbury had to find a way to accelerate Bowman’s development. In eight games, he passed for 2,638 yards, 17 touchdowns and only seven interceptions while completing 69.4% of his passes. His 329.7 passing yards per game were fourth-most in the nation this year.

Overall, the USC offense finished just 84th overall in total offense with 382.6 yards per game. Under Martin’s leadership, the Trojans ran for 1,602 yards and passed for 2,989 while scoring 26.1 points per game. Conversely, Texas Tech finished 12th in total offense with 485.2 yards per game while putting up 37.3 points per game.

Kingsbury will also be glad to know that the Trojans’ three top receivers from 2018, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Michael Pittman and Tyler Vaughns, will be back next season. That trio combined for 2,171 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns and are likely salivating over the thought of playing in the “Air Raid” offense.

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If there is a drawback for Kignsbury, it could be the uncertain future of USC head coach Clay Helton, who will certainly begin next season on the hot seat after a 5-7 season in 2018. But Helton’s future should not trouble Kingsbury too much because, as we have seen this week, there appears to be plenty of options available for arguably the brightest offensive mind in football.

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