Kliff Kingsbury Named Head Coach At Texas Tech
By: Texas Tech Athletics
Updated: December 12, 2012
LUBBOCK, Texas - Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech's second all-time leading passer, returns to his alma mater and becomes the 15th
head football coach in school history. At age 33, Kingsbury is the
youngest head coach in a BCS conference and the second youngest in the
FBS behind Toledo's Matt Campbell.
Kingsbury will be formally introduced at a news conference on Friday. Details on that news conference will be announced soon.
Kingsbury
returns home after a one-year stint as offensive coordinator at Texas
A&M where he played a huge role in leading freshman quarterback
Johhny Manziel to the
Heisman Trophy. Under his guidance, the Aggie offense finished third
nationally in total offense by averaging 552.33 yards per-game. The
Aggies ranked 14th nationally in passing offense and 13th
nationally in rushing offense, making Texas A&M one of the most
balanced attacks in college football. For the second consecutive year
Kingsbury was named the national offensive coordinator of the year.
Kingsbury
made the move to Texas A&M from the University of Houston where he
played a key role in the Cougars' record-setting 13-win season in 2011.
The Cougars finished
2011 with a 13-1 record and posted the program's highest final BCS
finish in school history (No. 19).
Kingsbury
served as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the
Cougars, and was named the 2011 Offensive Coordinator of the Year by
FootballScoop.com. The
Cougars led the nation in total offense, passing offense and scoring in
2011, while record-setting quarterback Case Keenum placed seventh in the
Heisman Trophy voting and won the Sammy Baugh Award.
With
Kingsbury calling the offensive plays, the Cougars averaged 599.1 total
yards per game, including 450.1 through the air, while scoring over 49
points per game.
The Cougars scored over 70 points in two games in 2011, and finished the
season with a 30-14 win over Penn State in the TicketCity Bowl.
Kingsbury
was instrumental in the continued development of Keenum, who finished
his illustrious career as the most prolific passer in NCAA FBS history.
In his one season
with Kingsbury as his QB coach, Keenum completed 428-of-604 passes for
5,631 yards and 48 touchdowns, all NCAA FBS bests.
In
his first season as QB coach at Houston in 2010, Kingsbury prepped a
true freshman signal caller, David Piland, to an average of 330.1 yards
passing per game, which
ranked No. 3 nationally. He was named to the Sporting News Freshman
All-America team.
After
an eight-year professional football career, Kingsbury entered the
coaching ranks in the spring of 2008 when he joined Sumlin's staff as an
offensive quality control
assistant. A sixth-round draft pick in 2003 by the New England Patriots,
Kingsbury played for five NFL teams and also saw action in the Canadian
Football League and the All-American Football League.
Kingsbury
was drafted by Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots after a
record-setting career at Texas Tech. Kingsbury received multiple honors
including Associated
Press Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year as a quarterback for the Red
Raiders. In addition, he set 39 school records, 16 Big 12 marks and 17
NCAA records during his career at Tech (1999-2002). As a senior he was
awarded the Sammy Baugh Trophy, presented annually
to the nation's best college quarterback.
The
first in a long line of record-setting Texas Tech quarterbacks under
then-head coach Mike Leach, Kingsbury recorded more than 12,000 passing
yards and total offense
including over 1,000 pass completions making him only the third player
in NCAA history to accomplish all three. 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 Academic
All-America Player of the Year honors in 2002.
A native of New Braunfels, Texas, Kingsbury graduated from Texas Tech in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in management.
