Last week, news broke that former Texas Tech football head coach Kliff Kingsbury was being courted by the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals as their next head coach. Then, just days later, that news was rebutted when USC Athletic Director Lynn Swann reportedly forbade NFL teams from speaking to his new offensive coordinator.

Now, it looks like Kingsbury will simply pay his buyout to USC and walk away for the opportunity to interview with the NFL. Jay Glazer broke the news on Twitter:

There remains the question of why Kingsbury ever signed the USC contract in the first place if he knew he wanted to do NFL interviews, but I don't think that he anticipated the amount of movement and interest his name would yield.


Eight NFL franchises are looking for new head coaches. Even if Kingsbury doesn't get one of those jobs, the Chiefs and Patriots offensive coordinator positions are likely to open up.

It could be that Kingsbury was always planning on taking NFL interviews, and USC was a fallback plan which overplayed their hand.

ESPN's Adam Schefter has also said that Kingsbury will be meeting with NFL teams, but has not confirmed he's leaving USC to do so.

If Kingsbury has truly started the process to resign from USC and Lynn actually lets him walk away, we can go ahead and lock in two things.

One: Kliff Kingsbury will be coaching, at some capacity, in the NFL in 2019. Two: If the Trojans don't win the Pac 12 next season and it's the lack of production on offense that does it, Lynn Swann will also be looking for a new job.