College Career
Kingsbury played collegiately for the Texas Tech Red Raiders from 1998-2002 at the position of quarterback. Kingsbury played 43 games at Texas Tech, completing 1,231 of 1,883 passes for 12,429 yards with 95 touchdowns and 40 interceptions. He left Texas Tech as the owner of 39 school records, 13 Big Twelve Conference and seven NCAA Division I-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.
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 passer. 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. These awards followed a season during which he shattered his own school single-season records by completing 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.
He averaged 350.2 yards per game and his 45 touchdown passes nearly doubled his previous season's mark. As a junior, Kingsbury was a Verizon All-District first-team selection and All-Big Twelve Conference second-team pick by the league's coaches for his performance. He completed 365 of 529 passes for 3,502 yards, 25 touchdowns and only nine interceptions. Kingsbury was an Academic All-Big Twelve Conference choice following his sophomore campaign. He assumed the starting role and connected on 362 of 585 passes for 3,418 yards, 21 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He added two scores on 78 carries. In his red-shirt freshman year, Kingsbury appeared in six games, starting the season finale against Oklahoma. He completed 25 of 57 passes for 492 yards, four touchdowns and an interception in his initial collegiate season.
He held 39 school, 13 Big 12 and seven NCAA records at the time of his graduation. He was a management major in college. He was also a member of the Epsilon Nu Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at Texas Tech. He, along with Graham Harrell, are the only Texas Tech quarterbacks to have beaten both Texas and Oklahoma during their careers as starters.
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