Kliff Kingsbury’s days with USC might be numbered.
There has been plenty of speculation about NFL teams giving the young coach and current Trojans OC a look. However, USC recently stopped the Cardinals and Jets from speaking with Kingsbury. Apparently, he’s now considering just walking away from the program to pursue other opportunities.
ProFootballTalk reported the following update on the situation:
Per multiple sources, Kingsbury’s contract has a very low buyout. But the buyout never came up because the NFL teams, honoring the strong mandate issued at last month’s ownership meeting, contacted Swann and requested permission to interview Kingsbury. Swann said no, and that was the end of it.
But that may not be the end of it. Kingsbury, the former Texas Tech head coach, may simply pay the buyout, walk away, and see what happens with any NFL head-coaching or offensive coordinator opportunities.
Well, it sure does look like my prediction of Kingsbury not being pleased with his communications being blocked is turning out to be correct.
I don’t know what was going through USC’s heads when they thought they could hang on to him forever by trying to shut down NFL opportunities. (RELATED: Kliff Kingsbury To Interview With The Arizona Cardinals And New York Jets For Head Coach Openings)
There’s not a coach in the world that wants to be an OC in college when they have the chance to be in the NFL.
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It’s just not realistic to expect him to stay forever. It’s not going to happen. Trying to shut down NFL teams from contacting him is only going to make Kingsbury dig in.
We don’t know just how much the buyout is, but Kingsbury has been making great money for several years now.
If it’s anything less than a few million dollars, I’d be shocked if Kingsbury couldn’t cover it himself.
It looks like things are going to get very interesting very soon in Los Angeles.