Damon Amendolara used to be one of our colleagues as the morning host on CBS Sports Radio, and while he’s gone to Mad Dog Radio on SiriusXM, we still love him…although maybe not in DC after this quote he gave Craig Hoffman about Kliff Kingsbury on Friday:
“I think he's the biggest fraud in football, because he has not succeeded anywhere he’s been to any significant degree,” DA said.
Damn bro, tell us how you REALLY feel.
“When he gets the head coaching job at Texas Tech, he never has a winning record within the Big 12; he's supposed to be a great offensive mind with Patrick freaking Mahomes, and his best season is 7-5 and a loss in the Texas Bowl,” DA continued. “Then he somehow fails upward to get the head coaching job in Arizona, and every Tech fan was like, this guy is a bum. He gets the Cardinals job and every year is the same thing: they start off hot and collapse down the stretch, and the one year they go to the postseason, they’re completely ill prepared to take on that Rams team. His team is known for penalties, poor coaching, sloppy play, and fades in the second half of the season. Oh, and then he goes to USC, and Caleb Williams has a worse season with him than he had without him and USC crashes and burns.”
Amendolara wonders if Kliff coming to DC is a play for Williams, but either way…
“I just think this guy has never proven anything, but he keeps getting plum jobs,” DA said.
Craig couldn’t argue the resume, but you also have to look at the defenses he had, which were not great, so that won’t affect his standing in a vacuum as an OC.
“I understand I'm the bucket of cold water in a pool of optimism, and nobody wants that. And in DC, I don't blame you guys; you have dealt with a lot of losing, a lot of bad Washington offense, a lot of bad Commanders football,” DA replied. “I totally get why you'd want to believe in Kliff Kingsbury, but two things still worry me. One, his offense consistently got less effective as year wore on; I think defensive coordinators picked up on tendencies, and I don't think he's a very good game planner – he tends to stick to what he does, and doesn't invest time in evolving that over the course of the season.”
Oh, and the other is something Eric Bieniemy dealt with?
“The second thing that worries me is if you can't do it with Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray, and Caleb Williams, what makes me think you can do it in the NFL with a rookie quarterback, which is going to happen this season for Washington?” DA asked.
Dan Quinn called Kinsgbury ‘an elite competitor,’ and Craig would say some coaches are indeed lazier than others – see also Ron Rivera versus some peers – but as DA says, what coach ISN’T a competitor in some way? Maybe Kingsbury?
“There was a moment in his tenure with the Cardinals that will forever bother me, and that was in year four – he, early in the season, said I don't like our practice habits, our focus, and our mentality, and we're taking things for granted,” DA said. “It’s year four! That’s your job. Whose job is the mentality of the team but Kliff Kingsbury? I realize it's different as an OC than a head coach, but I mean, dude, it's your team!”
