Lincoln Riley has a popular former USC assistant garnering head coaching attention. Kliff Kingsbury rises as an early name to monitor for one historic college football program's opening.
Kingsbury rose as one candidate to watch for Stanford, with Grant Hughes of 247Sports labeling him among the list of early contenders Tuesday. The Palo Alto campus opened its head coaching position after dismissing Troy Taylor amid controversy.
Taylor became the subject of "bullying" allegations per an in-depth report by ESPN. The second-year Stanford coach got accused of belittling female staffers and made inappropriate comments toward them. Stanford general manager and former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck helped persuade Taylor's dismissal five days later after two investigations.
"After continued consideration it is evident to me that our program needs a reset," Luck said in a school statement. "In consultation with university leadership I no longer believe that Coach Taylor is the right coach to lead our football program. Coach Taylor has been informed today and the change is effective immediately."
Kingsbury currently leads the Washington Commanders offense. He watched rookie Jayden Daniels flourish into an NFC title game QB and Pro Bowler. Hughes believes Kingsbury can rejuvenate Stanford.
"Kingsbury would be a splash hire for Stanford and help inject new life into a Cardinal offense that has ranked outside the top 100 in scoring each of the last four seasons," Hughes wrote. "He has a proven track record of developing elite quarterbacks, from Patrick Mahomes and Johnny Manziel at the college level to Kyler Murray and Jayden Daniels in the NFL, which could help sway quarterback Elijah Brown to stay in the fold."
Stanford would become his second college football head coaching gig if hired. Kingsbury went 35-40 overall at Texas Tech which includes coaching in three bowl games between 2013 to 2018. He later coached the Arizona Cardinals for four seasons from 2019 to 2022 -- going 28-37-1 with one playoff appearance.
Kingsbury served as a senior offensive analyst under Riley at USC in 2023. He worked with future top overall pick Caleb Williams during his truncated run with the Trojans. Kingsbury leaped back to the NFL one year later. But given his work with Washington, the 45-year-old is hearing his name return to head coaching chatter.
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