King of Lubbock

Kliff Kingsbury has matured into nation's top passer

After Texas Tech was pounded by Ohio State on national TV in August, it seemed as if the Heisman hopes of affable quarterback senior Kliff Kingsbury had evaporated. But Kingsbury is used to setbacks -- he had to fight just to make the Texas Tech roster when not one major program came knocking after his senior year of high school in New Braunfels, Texas. As the Red Raiders rolled off some big wins -- including last week's upset of No. 4 Texas -- to climb to No. 24 in the latest AP poll, Kingsbury has re-emerged as a legitimate Heisman candidate. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Kingsbury is the nation's leading passer (4,455 yards and 41 touchdowns) and has been named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week four times this season.

Kelley King: You have the timing, you have the touch. Tell me how the T-shirt has factored in.

Kliff Kingsbury: I have this Britney Spears shirt that I wear underneath my uniform. I hear a lot about it from my teammates, but it's been great luck for me so far so I don't think I'm going to stop wearing it. I got it at a concert I went to this summer, and it's really well-made, so it hasn't fallen apart yet. Britney and I, we've kind of hung in there together this season.

King: You had pretty good numbers coming out of high school, yet you weren't recruited by anyone. Why?

Kingsbury: I was a skinny kid -- 6-4, 185. I haven't gained that much on top of that, to tell you the truth, although I eat pretty much everything in sight. For a while I tried eating peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches every night before bed, and then I tried the supplements thing, but neither did much of anything. I'm beginning to think it wasn't meant to be.

King: How sweet was it to beat Texas, a team of players who you were passed over for coming out of high school?

Kingsbury: It was the same thing when we beat A&M, too. Our team is full of guys who were turned away from those programs. It's pretty fun to know you're beating the top recruits in the country.

King: If you had to make a highlight film of Texas Tech's season, what would you choose as the top play?

Kingsbury: Shoot, there have been a lot of good ones. The best would have to be when we were down 35-17 in the fourth quarter of the A&M game, then came back and beat them in front of their home crowd. It came down to an extra point. I'll never forget that feeling of standing there and watching the ball sail through the posts.

King: Did you feel for longtime rival Chris Simms after you upset Texas?

Kingsbury: I didn't feel bad for him. He's done a great job despite being in a tough spot, what with having to deal with Major [Applewhite] and with his famous dad. I didn't get to talk to him after the game because of the pandemonium, but we exchanged a few words before it, because we were both captains and met at the center of the field for the coin toss. We said to each other something like, "Hey, let's have some fun in our last game against each other."

King: If you had had a chance to say something, what would it have been?

Kingsbury: I would have told him that he had one heck of a game, and that he should keep his chin up and keep playing hard for the rest of the year.

King: Your own dad was a big part of your football career, wasn't he?

Kingsbury: Yeah, my dad wasn't exactly a celebrity. He was my high school football coach. It was tough, for obvious reasons, but he was a real good coach. Plus, my mom was a government teacher at my high school, so it was kind of a double-whammy. She was the happy-all-the-time teacher, and my dad was kind of strict. The kids at school were pretty cool about not complaining about either one to me.

King: OK, enough football -- let's get back to rock stars. I understand that Britney's wasn't your only concert this summer.

Kingsbury: Kid Rock came to town for a show, which was great. Through a friend, I got to go backstage, and there was Kid Rock and Pam Anderson, just hanging out. I don't remember exactly what we talked about but he was really down to earth. He kept offering me drinks ... anything and everything was there for the taking, if you know what I mean.

King: And ... ?

Kingsbury: And I politely declined.

King: Do you think he knew who you were?

Kingsbury: No, I don't think he had any idea.

King: But with your Heisman campaign heating up, it must seem like everyone else in Lubbock does.

Kingsbury: Yeah, the recognition-on-the-street thing has kind of evolved since I've been here. Lubbock is all about Texas Tech. Anytime you do well the whole town is fired up.

King: Any creepy encounters?

Kingsbury: I got my helmet stolen after the Missouri game. I had handed it to some little kid who wanted to pull a sticker off of it, and suddenly this guy -- a Texas Tech student -- grabbed it and took off. We got it back, because the guy thought it would be really funny to wear it around on Halloween; someone saw him and reported it and the police tracked him down. That was just weird. The attention in general has been kind of nice.

Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Kelley King covers college football for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

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