Kingsbury Is Ridiculously Dedicated

Over the weekend, CBS Sports' Bruce Feldman did a mailbag where he was asked what his true opinion of Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury is. Feldman's answer shouldn't surprise those of you that follow along:

I've known Kingsbury for years and I'm not at all surprised at how quickly he has risen up the coaching ranks. I recall the first time I'd ever seen him in a coaching setting. It was during the One-Back Clinic that was being hosted by Houston. The clinic featured some of the top offensive minds in college football from staffs all over the country. Then-UH OC Dana Holgorsen had Kingsbury give a presentation to the group about QB drills and it didn't take long to see how easily the former Texas Tech star commanded the room and how well he communicated. Thinking back to that day, I could see how he can connect with players so well.

Of course. Now, Feldman confirms what we already know, which is that in addition to being ridiculously good looking we get an idea that Kingsbury is ridiculously smart, hard working and dedicated to his craft.

## An Aside Tangent: Just go ahead and take yourself back and read some golden quotes, such as, "If there is anything that this horrible tragedy can teach us, it's that a male model's life is a precious, precious commodity. Just because we have chiseled abs and stunning features, it doesn't mean that we too can't not die in a freak gasoline fight accident." #realtalk

This isn't something that just Feldman knows or has written about, but Co-Defensive Coordinator Mike Smith has talked about Kingsbury's work ethic. I have tried to find the video or the audio, but it was something that I had listened to prior to signing day and the remark from Smith was that there were recruits in town, and Kingsbury had been at work at a ridiculously early time just working on plays. Kingsbury's former boss, Kevin Sumlin, and his former quarterback, Johnny Manzeil, talked about Kingsbury's work ethic.

"They’re getting a heck of a coach. He worked hard this year. He was there every day at 5 a.m. and he was the last person to leave. I know you hear that and you think it may just be people saying that, but it was true," Manziel said. "Every morning I was up there to work out or whatever it was, he was already there for hours ahead of time."

Always working.

I keep thinking that there will be a growing process. I keep thinking that to step right into the job of the head coach and oversee everything that a head coach has to do seems daunting to me. The on-the-field stuff is the least of my worries truth be told, it's the 1,000 other things that have to be done as a head coach. The things that need his approval and blessing.

A college football program is a machine and there are a ton of moving parts. For me, I have no doubt that Kingsbury will make some mistakes, because it is impossible to avoid them in any profession. We may know about some of them, but most likely we won't know about them at all. The key is how he recovers from mistakes. I tend to think that if you're willing to work hard then those mistakes or their impacts are minimized. I keep expecting the growing process to take time, but the more that I hear about Kingsbury and the rest of the staff work hard, the more comfortable I am with how short the learning curve may actually be.

And now, the LAJ has the details of Kingsbury's contract and there are provisions for meeting win totals, academic marks for his team, or other significant achievements.

So, now I open things up to you. What do you think that Kingsbury's biggest challenge will be? Don't just think about the on-the-field things, but consider the off-the-field responsibilities too.