To put the absurdity of this whole Kliff Kingsbury saga into full perspective, one must start at the beginning -- not the ending.

When Texas Tech decided to fire Kingsbury, a celebrated alum, in late November, nothing seemed askew. Nobody really protested. Nobody wondered how a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 program could willingly let go of such a rising star in the business.

Nope, a 35-40 record over six years and three straight losing seasons said enough. It was time for a change.

But I'd sure love to know what Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt is thinking right now.

Kingsbury didn't add a single win or accomplishment to his resume since then -- aside from pulling off a Hollywood-esque cameo appearance at USC -- yet he somehow became one of the most coveted coaches in all of football in the span of six weeks.

And now he's the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

Bizarre is the only way to describe all of this.

Whether Kingsbury will succeed as a head coach in the NFL where he could not in college is a separate discussion. The NFL has always been a copy-cat league -- so much so, that phrase has become an overused but still on-point cliche. With young offensive-minded coaches Sean McVay of the LA Rams and Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears quickly reviving those respective organizations -- especially McVay -- the new blueprint du jour for NFL success was established. Find an up-and-coming offensive coach, pair him with a young QB and enjoy the show.

Suddenly, Kingsbury becomes a top candidate for jobs he wouldn't have gotten a preliminary look at a couple years ago.

But again, that's a separate discussion. Let's evaluate this from the USC perspective.

Some fans may seek to assign blame to athletic director Lynn Swann for Kingsbury's deflating departure after just a month as Trojans offensive coordinator. That in itself is misplaced. Even if Swann did initially block NFL teams from interviewing the Trojans' prized offseason addition, as was widely reported, Kingsbury is not leaving for the Arizona Cardinals out of spite.

His chance to be an NFL head coach arrived and he pounced, landing one of the top 32 jobs in the entire profession.

Some can bemoan the irrelevant $150,000 buyout attached to his USC contract, as reported by Ian Rapoport, but Kingsbury held all the leverage in those negotiations. He wasn't going to sign for terms he and his agent didn't fully endorse, and that's actually a larger buyout than star defensive coordinators Dave Aranda (LSU) and Brent Venables (Clemson) face if they leave for head coaching jobs ($0).

Some then may further wonder if Kingsbury would have stayed nonetheless had USC offered him the head coaching job here, but that was never going to happen. Not after Swann dug in his heels on keeping head coach Clay Helton, and not after Helton sold his stability to the recruits who have signed and committed to the program.

More to the point, as much as many within the fan base wanted a change at head coach after a 5-7 season that inspired no confidence for the direction of the program, there would have been a subsequent revolt from those same folks at that time if USC settled for the fired coach from Texas Tech who never posted a winning conference record in the Big 12.

Only as Kingsbury's stock unexpectedly spiked did anyone even begin to think the Trojans should go all-in on him right now.

No, if there is a decision to scrutinize here, we again must go back to the very beginning and how USC made itself so largely dependent on Kingsbury in the first place, expecting him to right the ship during what most everyone expected to be a quick tenure one way or the other (albeit not this quick).

If so much was riding on the performance of the offensive coordinator to fix the flaws within a program still led by the same head coach, then perhaps a change at the top was the more paramount need all along -- which no shortage of vocal critics suggested. Some so strongly they commissioned an airplane to deliver that very message over the Coliseum.

Instead, Swann and Helton bought time with the Kingsbury hiring because his potential as an unassailably-elite offensive coach getting to focus solely on that side of the ball with a collection of 5- and 4-star playmakers was thoroughly captivating and exciting.

It succeeded in swinging the narrative, even if it was a short-term solution for both parties -- Kingsbury lifts USC's offense back to prominence, collects all the credit and positions himself for premier head coaching jobs in a year or two.

It was always a Band-Aid, but it may well have achieved its healing purpose all the same.

Until it was hastily ripped off over the last few days.

Because, as it turns out, Kingsbury didn't need USC at all. I, personally, do not think he was disingenuous. I think he made a tough decision in the moment to choose the USC OC job over potential OC jobs at the NFL level, feeling that would better position him for his interests in the long run. Like Hocutt at Texas Tech, surely like Swann and Helton here, like most all of us for that matter, I don't think he ever imagined legitimate NFL head coaching offers would come a month later.

It's hard to begrudge him for cashing in on this unexpected windfall of opportunity.

But now USC is back at the beginning. Left to answer the same question that lingered in late November -- how do the Trojans sell optimism and confidence in the program while mostly maintaining the status quo?

The answer, in short, is it's going to be very tough -- especially after this.

There doesn't seem to be another Kingsbury on the market, a coach so well established on that side of the ball but also available to relocate for a secondary role.

Whatever USC does now at offensive coordinator, it won't divert attention or scrutiny away from Swann's decision to stick with Helton -- which, again, is where all this began.

This offseason started with a statement from the AD acknowledging "deficiencies in areas that include culture, discipline, schemes, personnel and staff" while adding that "Coach Helton has a plan in place to get USC back to the top."

The question now is, does he have a Plan B?

And if not, at what point does Swann come up with one of his own?