Kliff Kingsbury Says It’s Time To Win Football Games

Kliff Kingsbury took the podium at Big 12 Media Days to discuss the upcoming season.

In a recent article I discussed Kliff Kingsbury and how his shine has worn off. At Big 12 media days, he agreed. 

"I think we're past that," (meaning the overblown hype) Kingsbury told reporters at Big 12 media days. "It's time to win football games and be a good coach."

After a 7-0 start to his head coaching career, Kliff and the Red Raiders have gone 5-13 and have had a very different off-season in 2015 compared to 2014.

In 2014, Texas Tech had a returning Defensive Coordinator, Davis Webb was the savior of the program and Kingsbury was being likened to Ryan Gosling. For some reason, after a 5-game losing streak, a surprise bowl victory made the local vibe incredibly high. Webb was being touted as a 1st round pick in the NFL draft. While that may be true, it definitely was not the case in 2014.

The 2015 off-season stars a weathered third year head coach, a quarterback battle, yet another new defensive coordinator and low expectations. Locally, fans will always want to go to a bowl game, but very few and far between do Tech fans expect more than that. 

The 2015 predictions I've seen have all been very similar: just make it to a bowl game.

Kingsbury, too, prefers the less glitzy offseason.

"I don't think I like the attention," Kingsbury said. "Early on, attention is good for a program when you're trying to get recruits. Now, it's about winning games."

This new regime had plenty of early attention, but according to Kingsbury it is now all about that action boss.

The momentum from a Baylor loss carried over into the off-season. 

"That's when I knew we had a chance to be good quickly," Kingsbury said. "We had nothing else to play for other than pride. They stood up, bowed their necks and played hard." 

More players are coming into Tech's facilities building on their days off, he said. There's more film study and more work in the weight room.

After only five seasons as an assistant, Kingsbury has had to learn to be a head coach on the job. 

"Nothing can prepare you for being in that seat. I wasn't in it as long as others," Kingsbury said. "But I've been fortunate enough to have been around great coaches. I got to see it done a lot of different ways."

He admitted to being too focused on the offense when he arrived at Tech. 

"When I first got here, it was all about offense," said Kingsbury. "'What are we doing on offense?' That's all I knew. Then, as I evolved, it was, 'Hey, I have to keep an eye on special teams and know the personnel there. I have to know the defense and know what's going on there.'"

This is very important in the development of a head coach. There is a reason head coaches have assistant coaches and coordinators. Maybe Kingsbury will learn to rely on his and focus more on how to address the penalties and turnovers that have plagued this team since the beginning.