Kliff Kingsbury

Klifford Kingsbury (born August 9, 1979) is an American football coach and former NFL and NFL Europe quarterback. He is currently the head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Prior to taking the Texas Tech job, Kingsbury was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas A&M University for Heisman trophy winner Johnny Manziel, a position he assumed in January 2012 after getting his start in coaching at the University of Houston. Kingsbury was named the Footballscoop.com Offensive Coordinator of the Year after directing the Houston Cougar offense to a record breaking offensive season in 2010. In 2008, Kingsbury accepted an entry level coaching position at Houston under Dana Holgorsen where he helped implement a new variation of the "Air Raid" offense adapted from what Kingsbury learned while a quarterback at Texas Tech under head coach Mike Leach.

High school career
Kingsbury played high school football at New Braunfels High School, where his father Tim was head coach. Kingsbury also was a member of the baseball, basketball and track teams. His mother, Sally, died in 2005 at the age of 51 from soft-tissue sarcoma.

College career
Kingsbury played collegiately for the Texas Tech Red Raiders from 1998-2002 at the position of quarterback. Kingsbury played 43 games at Texas Tech, completing 1,231 of 1,883 passes for 12,429 yards with 95 touchdowns and 40 interceptions. He left Texas Tech as the owner of 39 school records, 13 Big Twelve Conference and seven NCAA Division I-A records and is only the third player in college football history to throw for over 10,000 yards, gain over 10,000 yards in total offense and complete over 1,000 passes in a career. He also became just the fourth player in college football annals to throw for over 3,000 yards three times during his career.

Kingsbury also excelled in the classroom as he was one of 14 collegiate football players to receive a post-graduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame as he also garnered Verizon Academic Player of the Year honors in 2002. As a senior he was awarded the Sammy Baugh Trophy, annually presented to the nation's best college passer. He was also selected Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-American and Player of the Year as well as being a unanimous All-Big Twelve Conference first-team pick and named the Associated Press' Offensive Player of the Year. These awards followed a season during which he shattered his own school single-season records by completing 479 of 712 passes (67.3 percent) for 5,017 yards, 45 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions. He also added two rushing scores on 102 carries.

He averaged 350.2 yards per game and his 45 touchdown passes nearly doubled his previous season's mark. As a junior, Kingsbury was a Verizon All-District first-team selection and All-Big Twelve Conference second-team pick by the league's coaches for his performance. He completed 365 of 529 passes for 3,502 yards, 25 touchdowns and only nine interceptions. Kingsbury was an Academic All-Big Twelve Conference choice following his sophomore campaign. He assumed the starting role and connected on 362 of 585 passes for 3,418 yards, 21 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He added two scores on 78 carries. In his red-shirt freshman year, Kingsbury appeared in six games, starting the season finale against Oklahoma. He completed 25 of 57 passes for 492 yards, four touchdowns and an interception in his initial collegiate season.

He held 39 school, 13 Big 12 and seven NCAA records at the time of his graduation. He was a management major in college. He was also a member of the Epsilon Nu Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at Texas Tech. He, along with Graham Harrell, are the only Texas Tech quarterbacks to have beaten both Texas and Oklahoma during their careers as starters.

2003 & 2004 (NFL)
Kingsbury, 6' 3" tall, 213-pounds, was selected by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2003 Draft with the 201st overall selection. He spent his rookie season of 2003 on the Patriots' injured reserve list with an arm injury and was waived by the Pats on September 6, 2004 and subsequently was signed to the New Orleans Saints' practice squad, where he spent the entire 2004 season. He went to training camp with the Saints this season and completed 10-of-21 passes for 139 yards with a long of 57 yards and two interceptions.

2005 (NFL)
The 26-year old native of New Braunfels, TX was signed to the Denver Broncos' practice squad on Sept. 6, 2005 and was released on Sept. 21, 2005. As a free agent he signed with the New York Jets on September 28, 2005.

Kingsbury made his NFL debut in the fourth quarter of a game against the Denver Broncos on November 20, 2005, while a member of the New York Jets.

2006 (NFL/NFLE)
The New York Jets assigned Kingsbury to the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe in 2006. He posted the top quarterback rating of any Cologne quarterback (73.7) while completing 58 of 102 passes for 633 yards and two touchdowns. He also led Cologne with a 56.9 completion percentage. Kingsbury was subsequently signed by the Buffalo Bills and attended training camp with the Bills, but did not see any regular season action with the team in 2006.

2007 (CFL)
On March 30, 2007, Kingsbury signed with the Montréal Alouettes. He spent part of training camp in Montréal before being traded to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on June 20 in exchange for quarterback Brad Banks.

2008–2012 (Prior to Texas Tech)
In August 2008, Kingsbury joined the University of Houston football staff in the position of quality control. Kingsbury was drawn to Houston through his ties with Dana Holgorsen who had been the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech prior to Houston and was recognized for the performance of the Houston offense in 2009 with record setting quarterback Case Keenum at the helm. With Holgerson departing to become the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State University, Kingsbury was promoted to the position of co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Cougars serving alongside former UH receiver Jason Phillips. Kingsbury quickly gained Coach Kevin Sumlin's trust and began calling all the offensive plays. After a record breaking 2011 season in which Houston led the NCAA in yards, points, and virtually every offensive category, Kingsbury followed Sumlin to Texas A&M. In College Station Kingsbury continued his accelerated climb through the coaching ranks as the Aggies offensive coordinator for the 2012 season. At Texas A&M Kingsbury will implement the "Air Raid" spread offense, he first learned at Texas Tech and the variation Holgerson adapted at Houston. Kliff Kingsbury was recognized as the 2011 Offensive Coordinator of the year after Houston lead college football, averaging 50 points and nearly 600 yards of offense per game.

Kliff Kingsbury joined former Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin to be the offensive coordinator for Texas A&M for the 2012 season, coaching Heisman Trophy winner, quarterback Johnny Manziel. For his performance, Kingsbury was named the 2012 Footballscoop.com Offensive Coordinator of the Year and was named a finalist for the Broyles Award. The Aggies lead the Southeastern Conference in in rushing, passing, total and scoring offense, and were the nation’s only offense ranked in the top 15 of the NCAA statistics in all four categories.

2013 (Texas Tech Red Raiders)
Kingsbury returned to his alma mater as Texas Tech's 15th full-time head coach on December 12, 2012.Texas Tech athletic director, Kirby Hocutt announced the hire with a video linked from his Twitter account. The video panned over to Kingsbury, who flashed the Guns Up sign and said, "Wreck 'em, Tech." Kingsbury's contract includes a base salary of $10.5 million over 5 years, and creative control over the team's uniforms.

At 33, Kingsbury is the youngest head coach of a team in an AQ conference, and the second-youngest head coach in college football. He is only second behind only Matt Campbell of Toledo.