Even before he was named the new head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Kliff Kingsbury had been a fan of not only many of their players, but the entire organization.
“Even though I grew up in Texas, I actually became a Cardinals’ fan in high school,” Kingsbury said to a packed auditorium Wednesday afternoon at the team facility in Tempe. “I was a big Jake Plummer fan. The way he played. His style of play. Roll right into Kurt Warner…and then Carson Palmer. Then, of course, Pat Tillman. What a legendary name.”
Now the 39-year-old Kingsbury is hoping to etch his own place in Cardinals’ lore inheriting a 3-13 team who will have the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft, as well as salary cap flexibility to hopefully improve a flawed roster and flip the script in 2019.
“We wanted to hire a great offensive mind,” President Michael Bidwill said. “We wanted to make sure we hired somebody who has head coaching experience and weren’t particularly concerned whether it was at the college or the pro level.”
Kingsbury is anxious to get work with the first priority being assembling a staff and piecing together a blueprint for his offensive scheme moving forward.
“I’ve obviously leaned heavy on [General Manager Steve Keim] for names and people he knows in this league. We feel like we have some great candidates.”
Bidwill and Keim feel they had a great candidate in Kingsbury who was hired just nine days after the team parted ways with Steve Wilks.
Only time will tell.
