Hire a head coach who was 35-40 in six Lubbock seasons? Hire a head coach who was 5-13 against the Big 12’s States (OSU, KSU, Iowa State) to compete against the Rams, Seahawks and 49ers?

Texas Tech fired Kliff Kingsbury in November, the Arizona Cardinals hired him in January, and I joined the band of critics who blistered the hiring.

“I think we’ve got a diversity problem,” Payton told the NFL Network in March. “What took place, that’s hitting us (experienced coaches) square in the face.” Payton later said he was “excited to play those teams” that had hired offensive gurus.

Sunday in New Orleans, the Saints get their chance. They host the Cardinals. And while the Saints likely will roll, it’s because Payton has a great team, not because the Cardinals are a mess. Under Kingsbury, a team with a depleted roster, a rookie quarterback and always-squishy ownership suddenly is 3-3-1. Many season projections had the Cardinals winning no more than three games all season.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but no way can this be good for Oklahoma football, hoping to keep Lincoln Riley from the clutches of the NFL for the next decade or so.

Riley appears to be the poster child of the offensive phenom movement. If the NFL covets even a coach with a résumé like Kingsbury’s, how much more would it want a coach like Riley, who has brought to Norman the greatest offenses in school history and made quarterback prodigies out of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts, none of whom were hailed as the finished product when they won the Oklahoma job.