Jets, Cardinals Denied Permission To Interview Kliff Kingsbury

It sounds like the Cardinals and Jets may not be interviewing former Texas Tech head coach and current USC coordinator Kliff Kingsbury after all. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that USC has denied the NFL teams permission to interview their offensive coordinator. Previous reports indicated that Kingsbury would indeed be interviewing with Arizona and New York.

As Schefter notes, this news is a “perfect storm of the NFL’s new enforcement of an old rule.” League officials recently informed team executives that they had to request permission from athletic directors in order to interview college head coaches. If teams didn’t follow this protocol, it’d be considered “conduct detrimental” to the league, at which time the NFL could “dock draft picks” from the applicable teams.

“If permission is denied, the NFL club should respect that decision just as it would respect a similar decision from another NFL club,” the rule states. “NFL clubs that fail to follow these protocols may be subject to disciplinary action for conduct detrimental to the League.”

Following a 5-7 campaign, Kingsbury was fired by Texas Tech in late November. Despite his lackluster tenure at the school, NFL teams have taken notice of his ability to develop quarterbacks; Kingsbury ultimately brought both Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield to Lubbock, Texas.

After declining a chance to become the head coach of the University of Houston, he quickly caught on as USC’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, replacing Tee Martin. Prior to accepting the USC gig, the coach reportedly received overtures from NFL teams. However, since that time, Kingsbury has continued to say that he is solely focused on his current gig with the Trojans.

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