Kliff Kingsbury out to Show He's Not Just the Big 12's Best-Looking Coach

DALLAS — After a while, it gets old.

Kliff Kingsbury, the Ryan Gosling of the Big 12 and of college football.

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

Texas Tech's favorite son returned to his alma mater as a head coach at the end of the 2012 season after a brief stint as Texas A&M's offensive coordinator. Kingsbury was viewed as a bright, young offensive mind that would bring the Red Raiders back into the Air Raid days of the Mike Leach era.

And, yes, his looks—right, wrong or otherwise—were a part of the story.

At first, the Kingsbury-Tech marriage seemed ideal. In Kingsbury's first season in 2013, the Red Raiders started 7-0, but they then lost the final five games of the regular season. Only a surprising Holiday Bowl victory over Arizona State kept Tech from being a complete Jekyll and Hyde case.

TIM SHARP/Associated Press

Things didn't improve in 2014. In fact, they got worse. Tech struggled to put away Central Arkansas and UTEP in its first two games and went on to finish 4-8. The shine of the young, attractive Kingsbury storyline had worn off. Now, Kingsbury doesn't want it to be any part of the story.

Entering his third year, this is firmly Kingsbury's program. And it's time to win.

That's not just anyone's opinion. That's his own.

"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."

Sometimes, winning is a matter of a couple things going right or wrong. A four-win season can be a six- or seven-win season if one or two things break differently. But it seemed like just about everything went wrong for Kingsbury in '14. Just a few weeks into the season, defensive coordinator Matt Wallerstedt abruptly resigned. Tech went on to finish the season last in the Big 12 in points allowed per game.

There were mental mistakes—lots and lots of mental mistakes. The Red Raiders finished near the bottom nationally in turnover margin and dead last in penalties. Those two areas have been a problem in Kingsbury's two years.

Year	Turnover Margin Rank	Penalty Yards Per Game Rank
2013	123rd	124th
2014	119th	128th (last in FBS)

Injuries took their toll. Namely, quarterback Davis Webb sustained a shoulder injury in an early-season loss to Oklahoma State and eventually had to be shut down for the year.

"This past year, going through the tough times, a lot of our young guys never experienced (losing)," Kingsbury told Bleacher Report. "So it was a learning experience for everyone. It upped the ante for them wanting to win."

Interestingly, Kingsbury said he saw a bright future in Tech's final game of the season against Baylor, a 48-46 loss. There was no bowl coming for the Red Raiders. There was nothing to play for, yet Kingsbury's team kept battling, outscoring the Bears 29-6 in the final 19 minutes. Though Tech came up just short, Kingsbury knew it was an encouraging sign.

"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."

The momentum, if you want to call it that, carried over into the offseason. 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.

But no one feels the pressure to succeed more than Kingsbury. Forget the laid-back demeanor. Those who know him attest he's as competitive as anyone in the business.

That's a big part of the reason why Kingsbury was able to land a head coaching job after just five years as an assistant. But the flip side to that is Kingsbury is still learning how to coach, let alone run an entire operation. It takes time.

Being a position coach, or even a coordinator, and a head coach are two completely different things. Kingsbury's responsibilities more closely resemble that of a CEO, in which delegating responsibilities and developing players and coaches alike are paramount.

It's all a learning experience, Kingsbury explained, and there's not exactly a manual for how to handle situations that arise. Shortly after his first season with Tech, quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Michael Brewer transferred with multiple parting shots.

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

"You get an overall understanding of what's going on day to day. When I first got here it was all about offense. '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.'"

You can bet Kingsbury knows now. First-year defensive coordinator David Gibbs comes to Tech from Houston, where he coached one of the top defensive units in the American Athletic Conference in 2014. These are the types of decisions Kingsbury knows he has to make now. Despite having a high-paying contract and the admiration of an entire fanbase, Kingsbury eventually has to prove that he is the right guy for the job.

Kingsbury is a brilliant X's and O's football mind, no doubt, but being a successful head coach is more than that. It's about being able to make changes and adapt on the fly. Until now, Kingsbury hasn't had the opportunity to do that.

Armed with a team that returns lots of juniors and seniors in the two-deep, Texas Tech has the talent and experience to be the biggest turnaround team in the Big 12. But does it have the mental discipline to cut down on the mistakes and negative plays that proved so costly the last two years? Can the Red Raiders improve on finishing drives and red-zone efficiency?

There are no more excuses in Kingsbury's mind. It's time for everyone, himself included, to start acting their age.

"They have fun with me being a younger guy—it comes with the territory," Kingsbury said. "But we're serious about our program and winning games, and that's what we're trying to do."

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.