Two franchises in full disarray, the Arizona Cardinals and the Houston Texans fired their head coaches on Monday. The 2 coaches, Kliff Kingsbury and Lovie Smith, step down at fully completely different phases of their careers.
For Kliff Kingsbury, there have been many questions as to if he was prepared for his first NFL head teaching job when he was employed at 39 years previous in 2019. Whereas thought of an offensive mastermind, Kingsbury’s Texas Tech groups completed over .500 twice throughout his six seasons there. Patrick Mahomes was his starting quarterback for 3 of these seasons, and Texas Tech nonetheless solely earned one bowl bid — the 2015 Texas Bowl the place they misplaced 56-22 to LSU.
For Lovie Smith, if he decides to pack up his Santa Claus beard and spend the remainder of his life on the North Pole — or in Tulum — his teaching profession must be held in excessive esteem. It wasn’t his protection’s fault that the Biggest Present on Turf St. Louis Rams solely scored 17 factors in Tremendous Bowl XXXVI. As the pinnacle coach of the Chicago Bears, he went 83-61 with three playoff berths and a Tremendous Bowl look. His stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Illinois, and Houston Texans had been a lot much less profitable.
Nonetheless, Smith cemented himself as a Chicago legend yesterday afternoon. With the Texans and Bears in a battle for the No. 1 total decide within the 2023 NFL Draft, Smith battled the struggling Indianapolis Colts all day. His workforce led a lot of the sport, however the Colts ultimately took a fourth-quarter lead. Then, with a minute left within the sport Davis Mills hit the luckiest landing cross of his life. The Texans might have despatched the sport into additional time however Smith determined that there could be no want for the additional session. They went for 2, received the sport, the Bears secured the No. 1 total decide for the primary time since 1947, and Smith was fired after one season — as was anticipated.
Make certain a statue for that man is within the development plans on the new Arlington Heights facility.
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What’s subsequent for Kliff Kingsbury?
He was the cool, good-looking, offensive guru who as soon as introduced an ice cream truck with bottle service girls to apply when he was an assistant on the College of Houston.
Kingsbury is in his 40s now and the “boy marvel” attraction has worn off. The Cardinals made the playoffs final season, however he has been answerable for a workforce swamped with dysfunction. There was the humorous with Kyler Murray’s reported, “study time,” in his contract, and the disturbing when the Cardinals’ offensive line coach — Sean Kugler — received fired after allegedly groping a girl throughout the workforce’s weekend in Mexico once they performed there in November. It’s an accusation that Kugler denies — he has filed an arbitration case with the league.
Now, one season after signing a contract extension, no matter cash the Cardinals are going to must eat to eliminate him, they clearly don’t have any downside doing so.
Kingsbury remains to be a highly respected offensive mind within the faculty soccer world. Keep in mind, he was alleged to be USC’s offensive coordinator earlier than the Cardinals determined to make that arduous push to rent him in 2019.
Managing a workforce, and nonetheless calling performs, has confirmed to be a tough job for a lot of NFL head coaches — particularly their first time on the job. What Kingsbury must do subsequent, is discover a workforce with a promising offense, NFL or faculty, and be the offensive coordinator to take them from good to nice. He could discover himself main an NFL workforce once more in the future, however he’s received a protracted option to go.
