Texas Tech beats Arkansas, Kliff Kingsbury drops the hammer on Bret Bielema

Almost immediately following his team’s surprising 35-24 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks, Kliff Kingsbury took to the podium.

Dressed in an ever-fitted suit and purposely coiffed hair, Kingsbury began fielding questions from the gathered media. He could’ve chosen to focus on the stellar play of his sophomore quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. He could’ve highlighted the team’s dramatic turnaround in discipline and ball control after committing only a handful of penalties and putting the game away late with uncharacteristic ball control and a grinding of the clock in a hostile environment.

But instead, Kingsbury, visibly agitated, had something he wanted to say about Bret Bielema. The Arkansas head coach, famous for his hot takes on the scary fast state of the game, borderline erotic kneel downs and Ohio State’s weak out of conference schedule, drew Kingsbury’s ire.

Later, Kingsbury explained why Bielema’s comments bothered him. “I’m the son of a Texas high school football coach,” Kingsbury said. “And 90% of teams in Texas run a spread.”

“It rubbed me the wrong way,” he said.

Fair warning, college football. Fair warning. Kingsbury rarely ventures outside well scripted coach speak, so when he says something so out of character, it’s huge. On Saturday night the college football world learned that there might be something to the young coach beyond good looks and sunglasses. And Bret Bielema learned that maybe it’s not a good idea to rub Kingsbury the wrong way.

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