USC denying Kingsbury interviews seems like a bad sign for Helton

Kliff Kingsbury lost his Texas Tech job in November, caught on as a USC coordinator in December, and is in demand in the NFL in January. But the Trojans reportedly won’t let him interview.

College football and the NFL have fused schematically.

The styles of play aren’t exactly the same at the two levels, of course, nor from team to team at each. But the big concepts popular at one level are also popular at the other, whether that’s the Chiefs running the shotgun triple option with Patrick Mahomes or Alabama installing an ambitious downfield passing game for Tua Tagovailoa.

The last Super Bowl was loaded with Xs and Os that used to be considered college’s domain. The option has permeated all levels of the sport. Spread offenses have gradually filtered upward. NFL teams have looked to Oklahoma’s coach for ideas. Lamar Jackson just won an NFL division while running option plays his foes used to think were a fad.

The NFL is so into college-style offense that two teams want to interview Kliff Kingsbury, whom Texas Tech fired in November. But Kingsbury’s new school, USC, doesn’t want him to interview with those teams.

Kingsbury, the 39-year-old former Mike Leach quarterback, got fired in November after six seasons and a ton of points — when Tech had the ball and, more problematically, when Tech was playing defense. The Red Raiders’ pass-heavy scheme produced Mahomes (and Baker Mayfield, sort of) and led to a handful of the best offenses in the country. But defense was a perpetual problem and eventually got Kingsbury fired.

A bunch of NFL teams expressed interest, but Kingsbury caught on with USC as offensive coordinator after Tech cut him loose. His arrival in Los Angeles signals a shift from a run-centered offense to a pass-centered one. Previously, what we’d known of NFL teams’ pursuit of Kingsbury was that they were looking at him as a coordinator. It made sense that he’d pick USC, where he could have elite college talent and maybe become head coach one day.

The NFL Network reported he’s getting head-gig interviews with both the Cardinals and Jets before ESPN reported USC was denying them.

A college team denying a coordinator the chance to interview for a head coaching job is highly unusual.

It’s common for coaches to have contractual clauses that require them to get permission to interview elsewhere, or that require future teams to pay big buyouts to get them away.

But it’s rare for a team to keep an assistant in his job and not let him talk with other teams about advancement opportunities. This system usually just polices itself, with schools not wanting to be seen as restricting growth opportunities for the coaches on their staffs.

Pro Football Talk reports Kingsbury might resign from USC over the school’s denials and describes USC AD Lynn Swann’s call this way:

However it plays out, many are surprised by Swann’s decision. He’s believed to be the first college A.D. to ever block a coach from interviewing for an NFL head-coaching job, and he may end up having plenty of explaining to do to media, boosters, and fans if he loses Kingsbury.

USC head coach Clay Helton was widely expected to be fired after a 5-7 season. It’s not much of a leap to wonder if USC’s hanging onto Kingsbury in case it does decide to fire Helton in a year. Keeping an assistant from head coaching interviews is that odd a move, and it doesn’t say anything good about USC’s faith in the rest of Helton’s staff.

Boston College fired Jeff Jagodzinski in 2009 after he interviewed with the Jets, but that was the Eagles’ head coach.

The NFL teams that want to interview Kingsbury both have recent college stars at QB, so it makes sense that they’d want a guy with a college background to work with them.

The Cardinals’ Josh Rosen (UCLA) and the Jets’ Sam Darnold (USC) both played in college offenses that leaned more toward the “traditional pro-style” end of the spectrum. The spread is everywhere now, but neither QB spent much time in Kingsbury’s beloved four-wide sets. Big formations and power running were key parts of both their college systems. Chip Kelly didn’t get to UCLA until Rosen was on his way out.

Both QBs have big arms, though, and it’s easy to figure why an NFL team would be enticed by the idea of Kingsbury working with one of them. Mahomes is probably Kingsbury’s most famous QB success story, but he’s not close to the only one.

He coached Johnny Manziel during his Heisman year at Texas A&M and later got some production out of Davis Webb, who had a few good years at Tech before Mahomes unseated him. Webb transferred to play in another air raid system: Sonny Dykes’ at Cal. He’s now with the Jets, where he could reunite with Kingsbury.

The coach kept getting big QB numbers after Mahomes left for the NFL, working the last two years with Nic Shimonek and Alan Bowman, whom most fans have never heard of.

That’s been Kingsbury’s track record. QBs who play for him put up huge numbers, and not just because they’re throwing a lot. For instance, Bowman averaged 8.1 yards per throw this year at Texas Tech, and that was pacing to be a top-25 rate nationally if he didn’t get hurt. His offenses have usually been efficient and not just obsessed with volume throwing.

NFL teams’ interest in Kingsbury signals one more thing.

It suggests they’re open to hiring a head coach who a) has no defensive background himself, and b) had a lot of really bad defenses in the Big 12.

That can work with the right defensive coordinator and on-field talent. But it mainly speaks to how tantalized NFL teams are by coaches whose offensive tactics worked in college and aren’t that different than what’s now done in the pros.

It’s not a coincidence that one of the Jets’ other interviews is with Eric Bieniemy, the Chiefs offensive coordinator who’s run a college-like offense to devastating effect with the QB who used to play for Kingsbury. Whether Kingsbury gets an NFL job or not, the sort of spread offense he favors is only going to reach further into the highest level.

And USC’s apparent refusal to let him go could mean another thing.

They might want him to be their own head coach in the not-distant future.