Kliff Kingsbury deflects questions about interest in Oklahoma Sooners

The Cardinals head coach only acknowledged that, for now, his total focus is on the Bears, his next NFL rival.

TEMPE – The head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Kliff Kingsbury, diverted a question regarding his interest in the position at the head of the University of Oklahoma this Monday morning, the day after a report came to light stating that the Sooners They were targeting him for his head coach vacancy when he spoke to the media via Zoom call.

“I don’t get into those things,” he said. Kingsbury. “My only focus in the last couple of weeks has been Chicago Bears and, after seeing them in Thanksgiving DayIt needs to be because they are a very good football team and they are coming off a great win, so that’s where my focus has been. “

When asked why not simply deny interest in the position at the head of the Sooners, Kingsbury He replied: “We are in the middle of the season, we are 9-2. It is just not a topic that I want to touch on now.”

On Sunday night, Adam Schefter from ESPN reported that Oklahoma I had set my sights on Kingsbury to replace Lincoln Riley as the next head coach of the Sooners after what Riley emigrate to become the head coach of Southern California.

Kingsbury He said he was in his video room “all day disconnected” on Sunday, when the news of the interest of Oklahoma, “so it didn’t affect me in the least.” He said he was studying game video and enjoying “Queen of the South.”

Nevertheless, Kingsbury He said he enjoys directing in the NFL because of the “professionalism with which these guys arrive every day,” as well as the fact that professional players are “highly motivated, they take care of their bodies, they study the game. I mean, inspire to be a better coach. And you raise your level because you become better. In that meeting room, knowing that you better speak with a level of experience and confidence with those guys, or you lose them. “

Kingsbury is 9-2 in his third season in Arizona and has the Cardinals at the top of the NFC West and all the National Conference with the best mark in the league. Arizona has improved in each season under Kingsbury. The Cards finished 5-10-1 in the first season of Kingsbury, and they went 8-8 last year.

Low Kingsbury, the Cardinals have become a Top-10 offense three years from being the worst attack in the NFL under the previous coach, Steve Wilks.

Kingsbury was hired in 2019 to replace Wilks, who went 3-13 in his lone season at the helm of Arizona, after a combined 35-40 mark in six seasons leading Texas Tech. Wilks he was fired at the end of the 2018 campaign.

The Cardinals they selected the quarterback Kyler Murray 1st overall in 1st draft of Kingsbury, pairing a quarterback and coach who have known each other since Murray he was 15 years old. On November 17, days before Arizona be imposed on Seattle Seahawks visiting for your day off, Kingsbury said he and Murray they are “connected forever” and “will sign up together, and probably as much as any duo in the history of the NFL, because of the way things have happened. “

Murray is eligible for a contract extension after this season, his third, and is expected to command more money than he received Josh Allen with its extension for Buffalo Bills, for up to $ 258 million over six years, agreed in August.

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