Good job, good effort. Image: Getty Images
Two franchises in complete disarray, the Arizona Cardinals and the Houston Texans, fired their head coaches Monday. The two coaches, Kliff Kingsbury and Lovie Smith, are retiring at completely different stages in their careers.
For Kliff Kingsbury, there were many questions about whether he was ready for his first job as an NFL head coach when he was hired in 2019 at the age of 39. Despite being considered an offensive mastermind, Kingsbury’s Texas Tech teams finished twice in over .500 seasons in his six years there. Patrick Mahomes was his starting quarterback for three of those seasons, and Texas Tech still only received one bowl bid — the 2015 Texas Bowl, where they lost 56-22 to LSU.
If Lovie Smith decides to pack up his Santa Claus beard and live out the rest of his life at the North Pole — or Tulum — his coaching career should be treasured. It wasn’t his defense’s fault that the Greatest Show on Turf St. Louis Rams only scored 17 points in Super Bowl XXXVI. As head coach of the Chicago Bears, he went 83-61 with three playoff spots and one Super Bowl appearance. His stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Illinois and Houston Texans were much less successful.
Still, Smith cemented himself as a Chicago legend yesterday afternoon. While the Texans and Bears were battling for the No. 1 pick overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, Smith battled the struggling Indianapolis Colts all day. His team led much of the game, but the Colts eventually took the lead in the fourth quarter. Then, with a minute remaining, Davis Mills hit the happiest touchdown pass of his life. The Texans could have sent the game into overtime, but Smith decided there would be no need for the extra session. They went to two, won the game, the Bears secured the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since 1947, and Smith was fired after one season — as expected.
Make sure there is a statue for this man in the blueprints for the new Arlington Heights facility.
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What’s next for Kliff Kingsbury?
He was the cool, handsome, offensive guru who, as an assistant at the University of Houston, once brought an ice cream truck with bottle service girls to practice.
Kingsbury is now in his 40s and the boy wonder charm has faded. The Cardinals made the playoffs last season, but he was in charge of a team inundated with dysfunction. There was the humorous with Kyler Murray’s reported “college time” on his contract and the troubling when the Cardinals offensive line coach – Sean Kugler – was fired after he allegedly groped a woman over the team’s weekend in Mexico while they were playing there in November. An accusation that Kugler rejects – he has filed arbitration with the league.
Now, a season after signing a contract extension, the Cardinals have no problem eating whatever they need to get rid of him.
Kingsbury is still one highly respected offensive spirit in the college football world. Remember, he was set to be USC’s offensive coordinator before the Cardinals decided to forcefully hire him in 2019.
Managing a team and still naming plays has proven to be a daunting task for many NFL head coaches — especially when they’re new to the job. What Kingsbury needs to do next is find a team with a promising offense, NFL or collegiate, and be the offensive coordinator to take them from good to great. Maybe one day he’ll manage an NFL team again, but he still has a long way to go.
