Kliff Kingsbury

Kliff Kingsbury (born August 9, 1979 in San Antonio, Texas) is currently a Canadian football quarterback for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL.

High school career

Kingsbury played high school football at New Braunfels High School, where his father was head coach.

College career

Kingsbury played collegiately for the Texas Tech Red Raiders from 1998-2002. He redshirted in 1998, and got his first start in the 1999 season finale against the Oklahoma Sooners. He assumed the starting role in 2000, starting in 39 games between 2000 and 2002. Kliff Kingsbury played 43 games as a collegian, completing 1,231 of 1,883 passes for 12,429 yards and 95 touchdowns and 40 interceptions for Texas Tech University. He finished his career as the school's most decorated player. He left Texas Tech as the owner of 39 school records, 13 Big Twelve Conference and seven NCAA 1-A records and is only the third player in college football history to throw for over 10,000 yards, gain over 10,000 yards in total offense and complete over 1,000 passes in a career. He also became just the fourth player in college football annals to throw for over 3,000 yards three times during his career[2]. Kingsbury also excelled in the classroom as he was one of 14 collegiate football players to receive a post-graduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame as he also garnered Verizon Academic Player of the Year honors in 2002. As a senior he was awarded the Sammy Baugh Trophy, annually presented to the nation's best college quarterback. He was also selected Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-American and Player of the Year as well as being a unanimous All-Big Twelve Conference first-team pick and named the Associated Press' Offensive Player of the Year after a season during which he shattered his own school single-season records as he completed 479 of 712 passes (67.3 percent) for 5,017 yards, 45 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions. He also added two rushing scores on 102 carries. [1]

NFL career

Kingsbury, 6-3, 213-pounds, was selected by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2003 Draft with the 201st overall selection. He spent his rookie season of 2003 on the Patriots' injured reserve list with an arm injury and was waived by the Pats on September 6, 2004 and subsequently was signed to the New Orleans Saints' practice squad, where he spent the entire 2004 season. He went to training camp with the Saints this season and completed 10-of-21 passes for 139 yards with a long of 57 yards and two interceptions.

The 26-year old native of San Antonio, TX was signed to the Denver Broncos' practice squad on Sept. 6, 2005 and was released on Sept. 21, 2005. As a Free agent he signed with the Jets on September 28, 2005.[2]

Kingsbury made his NFL debut in the fourth quarter of a game against the Denver Broncos on November 20, 2005, while a member of the New York Jets. On June 6, 2006, Kingsbury was claimed off waivers by the Buffalo Bills, he has since been released by the team is currently a free agent. Kingsbury was the starting quarterback of the Cologne Centurions of the NFL Europe league in 2006.[3].

CFL career

On March 30, 2007, Kingsbury signed with the Montréal Alouettes. He spent part of training camp in Montréal before being traded to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on June 20 in exchange for quarterback Brad Banks.

External links

• 1 http://www.ncaa.org/library/records/football/football_records_book/2005/2005_d1_football_records.pdf
• 2 http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/396011
• 3 New York Jets Biography