Lincoln Riley Breaks Down Kliff Kingsbury's Arrival at USC

Lincoln Riley spoke with the media following Tuesday’s spring ball practice. And to no surprise, talk of Kliff Kingsbury dominated the back-and-forth.

USC officially announced Kingsbury as the Trojans’ Senior Offensive Analyst on Tuesday. It was a hiring that drew attention from the entire college football world and made a statement about where USC is as a football program right now.

Riley said conversations with Kingsbury began about a month ago and started as just two friends checking in with each other. Kingsbury came to Los Angeles and Riley broached the subject.

“I had talked to a few other people about it and hadn’t quite landed on the right person,” Riley said. “I asked Kliff just kind of in passing if it was something he’d be interested in and described it to him. And he thought about it for a little bit. And it just ended up being a great fit really, for both sides.”

Riley cited Kingsbury’s familiarity with the offense and a number of people on the staff as why the spot would fit him. And clearly, Kingbury’s offensive mind is one the USC coaches and players will love having in the building.

“Obviously, his experience, both on the offensive side will be very helpful in terms of gameplanning and some of those things they can do off the field — having another set of eyes there is very, very helpful,” Riley said. “And then obviously the added benefit with a guy like Kliff. This is guy that’s been a head coach at this level and at the professional level. And somebody that’s had to sit in that chair, make those decisions. Whether it’s something on game day or it’s something just through the course of a normal week, it’s always great to have another opinion and kind of an outside perspective that you know that’s maybe not tied to one position.”

Riley said he and Kingsbury never really overlapped at Texas Tech, as he was on the way in as Kingsbury was on the way out. At that point, neither could have expected to be coaching together at USC 20 years later. But Riley said he’s excited to get Kingsbury to USC. And he said Kingsbury is eager to get going with the Trojans.

“I think this will be a special year for both of us,” Riley said. “I know he’s really invested in what we’re doing. And we’re really excited.”

USC as a Major Opportunity

Alabama and head coach Nick Saban did well to establish his program as a place where former coaches could restart their careers while spending a year or more around the game in an off-field role. After the recent hiring of Greg Brown as a Senior Defensive Analyst and now Kingsbury, Riley is beginning to do the same at USC.

“He sees the opportunity that this is right now, which is a cool statement for our program,” Riley said. “It’s just another example of where we’re headed and another great bit of momentum for our program.”

Sharing Responsibilities

Riley is always going to be extremely involved with the offense for as long as he’s the head coach. But he also understands that he’s the head coach of the entire team. He spoke this offseason about wanting to be more engaged and involved with the defense. Kingsbury, as Will Harriger did last year, will alleviate Riley of some offensive responsibilities.

“I’ve got to be whatever the program needs me to be,” Riley said. “And that’ll be a little bit different in Year 2 versus Year 1. That will shift every year because every team is a little bit different…So yeah, having guys in the different areas that you trust makes a big difference there.”

Riley cited the hirings of Kingsbury, Brown and GM Dave Emerick as people who are going to make Riley’s job easier.

“Those are guys that I have extreme trust it and I know can be my eyes and ears,” Riley said. “They can occasionally take things off of me so I can be more present in different areas.

What Mike Leach Would Say

Both Kingsbury and Riley are obviously Mike Leach disciples. Riley was asked what he thought Leach would say if he knew the two were coaching together.

“I guess I gotta go with the G-rated version,” Riley said with a laugh. “Deep down he would really like it. He would come up with a really clever, probably fairly crude remark to describe it. He would have a funny take on it. But yeah, deep down, I think he would enjoy it.

“I think he always took some pride in seeing guys getting together,” Riley continued. “I know he’d enjoy it a lot more if we have a lot of success together. So hopefully we can get that done and make that goal come to fruition,”