This weekend, Texas Tech fired head coach Kliff Kingsbury after a 35-40 record in six years, and three straight losing seasons. The Red Raiders finished 5-7 in 2018 and hadn’t won a bowl game since Kingsbury’s debut season of 2013, when they beat Arizona State, 37-23, in the Holiday Bowl.

Kingsbury’s quarterback in that game was Davis Webb, who later transferred to Cal. Webb took over for a freshman walk-on by the name of Baker Mayfield who got hurt after a few games and mysteriously slid down the depth chart. Webb himself had been pushed out of the starting spot by a prodigious kid from Whitehouse, Texas named Patrick Mahomes—you may have heard of him.

Kingsbury ran with Mahomes until the future NFL superstar left for the NFL following the 2016 season, when he took a little-known quarterback named Nik Shimonek and put him in an offense that allowed Shimonek to complete 66.5% of his passes for 3,963 yards, 33 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.

After Shimonek left for the NFL following the 2017 season, Kingsbury extracted decent performances from Alan Bowman and Jett Duffey, and it’s precisely this knack for getting the best out of young quarterbacks that should have NFL head coaches and executives putting Kingsbury’s phone on speed-dial—despite his average record as a college head coach, Kingsbury knows how to develop players at the most important position, and with the NFL’s rapid acceptance of college concepts, there are few coaches at any level with a better track record.

I’ve watched tape with three quarterbacks who played under Kingsbury—Webb, Mahomes, and Shimonek—and they all adore their former coach.

“Our offense is a lot more complex than the old Air Raid, because Coach Kingsbury, coming from the NFL, has made it more complex,” Mahomes told me in April, 2017, a couple weeks before the Chiefs took him in the first round. “And that’s why it’s so successful.”

A Texas Tech quarterback himself from 1998 through 2002, Kingsbury was selected by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2003 draft—but this was not another case like Tom Brady where New England was going to hit the motherlode in that round. Kingsbury bounced around the NFL, completing one pass in two attempts for 17 yards for the Jets in 2005, and smartly went into coaching. He was a quarterbacks coach and offensive coach for Houston and Texas A&M before claiming the top job at Tech in 2013.

Shimonek had to ride the bench at Iowa behind Jake Rudock and C.J. Beathard and had to similarly ride the bench behind Webb and Mahomes at Tech when he transferred. But when he had his opportunity in 2017, ii came with a wealth of experience.

“Jake and Davis were extremely well-prepared each and every week,” Shimonek told me in April. “Pat and C.J. were also very well-prepared, but also played a lot more on instinct. I tried to take a little bit from each of their games while being myself, but if they’re getting drafted, they’re doing something right. It wouldn’t be smart of me to ignore everything they’re doing.”

While Webb’s tape session dealt with his Cal tenure, both Mahomes and Shimonek told me how advanced Kingsbury’s offense was—and in Mahomes’ case, you can certainly how well-prepared he was for the NFL. Most people think of an Air Raid offense as one with a few basic play calls and a lot of gimmicky, field-spreading screens. Kingsbury’s offense is a lot more than that.

When the quarterback calls a “95” or a “42” in Kingsbury offense, that short call tells the offensive linemen what the blocking scheme is, and where every receiver needs to go. It’s similar to how the Patriots have shortened their play calls to go quick no-huddle over the last few seasons. But in that supposed simplicity is a host of options for the quarterback.

“It’s the entire concept of the play,” Shimonek told me. “It’s not like a numbering system—a “383” or whatever, like they had at Iowa. “95” is the entire concept. You know what you’re doing, and you know your reads on ’95.’

“We had a ’99’ [route call] to the right side, so you have a go route to the outside guy—that’s your first read, if you like it,” Mahomes said. “Then you have an out by the wide receiver, and an under route by the ‘H’ receiver—that’s the third read. And then, to the left, you have the fourth read, which is the post/curl.”

And the amount of information Kingsbury’s quarterbacks have had to retain certainly mirrors the complexity of NFL offenses, as Mahomes told me when I asked him what Kingsbury’s most verbose play call was.

“Probably ‘Green Rug Rock Pop 2 East Bill Log 95 Z Post B Will.’” Pop is play action, and the formation is Green Rug Rock—that’s the backs behind me. Rug means that the B back [second running back] is on the line of scrimmage. We have our ‘Y’ receiver in the game, and our ‘Z’ receiver, and the H-back is out [away from the formation]. ‘Pop 2 East Bill Log’ means that we’re going to fake our outside zone to the right, with the B-back blocking in front. We’re going to fake that. ‘Log’ means the backside tackle is going to lock on the [backside defensive] end, and ’95’ is our concept of the play. We tag a Z Post [the ‘Z’ receiver running a post route], and for the B-back, we tag a ‘Will.’ [the second running back blocking the weak-side linebacker].”

So there. It’s more than dink-and-dunk. Kingsbury teaches his quarterbacks to throw with anticipation, touch, and arc to all levels of the field. And while Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley is often touted as the most appealing college-to-pro possibility next season, people shouldn’t overlook Kingsbury—not just because he’s proven his acumen at the college level, but because he’s always watching NFL tape to understand ideas at that level.

Bruce Feldman, a leading college football reporter for FOX Sports and The Athletic, and the author of “The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks,” confirmed this what I asked him about Kingsbury’s prospects at the next level.

“Kliff is a guy in the office by 4:00 a.m. every day,” Feldman told me. “He’s always been big on breaking down as much NFL stuff as he can to try and get ideas. The thing I’d heard from guys who worked with him is he’s great with tweaking things depending on something he might’ve noticed in the opponent’s personnel, which is different than many of the Air Raid guys.

Feldman believes that Kingsbury could be a real difference-maker as an offensive play-designer in the pros, and I agree. It’s time for the NFL to take notice, despite Kingsbury’s ignominious end at Texas Tech.

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