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Two franchises in full disarray, the Arizona Cardinals and the Houston Texans fired their head coaches on Monday. The two coaches, Kliff Kingsbury and Lovie Smith, step down at utterly 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 beginning quarterback for 3 of these seasons, and Texas Tech nonetheless solely earned one bowl bid — the 2015 Texas Bowl that 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 needs to be held in excessive esteem. It wasn’t his protection’s fault that the Best Present on Turf St. Louis Rams solely scored 17 factors in Tremendous Bowl XXXVI. As the top 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 have 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 general decide within the 2023 NFL Draft, Smith battled the struggling Indianapolis Colts all day. His group led for a lot of the sport, however the Colts did ultimately take a fourth quarter lead. Then, with a minute left within the sport Davis Mills hit the luckiest landing move of his life. The Texans might have despatched the sport into extra 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 general 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 building plans on the new Arlington Heights facility.
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What’s next for Kliff Kingsbury?
He was the cool, handsome, offensive guru who once brought an ice cream truck with bottle service ladies to follow when he was an assistant on the College of Houston.
Kingbury is in his 40s now and the “boy surprise” allure has worn off. The Cardinals made the playoffs final season, however he has been in command of a group that has been swamped in dysfunction. There was the humorous with Kyler Murray’s reported, “research time,” in his contract, and the disturbing when the Cardinals’ offensive line coach — Sean Kugler — obtained fired after allegedly groping a girl through the group’s weekend in Mexico once they performed there in November. It’s an accusation that Kugler denies — he has filed an arbitration case to the league.
Now, one season after signing a contract extension, no matter cash the Cardinals are going to must eat to do away with him, they clearly haven’t any drawback doing so.
Kingsbury remains to be a extremely revered offensive thoughts within the school soccer world. Keep in mind, he was imagined to be USC’s offensive coordinator earlier than the Cardinals determined to make that arduous push to rent him in 2019.
Managing a group, and nonetheless calling performs, has confirmed to be a troublesome job for a lot of NFL head coaches — particularly their first time on the job. What Kingsbury must do subsequent, is discover a group with a promising offense, NFL or school, and be the offensive coordinator to take them from good to nice. He might discover himself main an NFL group once more sooner or later, however he’s obtained a protracted technique to go.
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