Caleb Williams puts in good word for Kliff Kingsbury, says Bears' next coach must challenge team

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — The Chicago Bears figure to kick their coaching search into another gear after their season finale at Green Bay on Sunday.

One potential candidate has worked with the quarterback the Bears drafted with the No. 1 pick last spring. Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was a senior offensive analyst at Southern California in 2023, when Caleb Williams was in his second and final season with the Trojans after spending a year at Oklahoma.

“I know what type of guy he is,” Williams said Wednesday. “I know he loves football. I know he wants to win. He’s a competitor. And so in many different aspects that I was just speaking of, I’ve been around him. So I would say that being around him, knowing him, asking him questions and things like that, I think obviously if he was here I’d probably have more to say. But I think he fits a bunch of those qualities that I said.”

What are those qualities?

“A coach that challenges myself, whether it’s an offensive coordinator or head coach, and also challenges us as players — whether it’s on the field or character, doesn’t matter. Just a coach that challenges us,” Williams said. “A man of his word. A discipline coach, meaning whatever his rules are or whatever he’s gonna bring rule-wise, how he’s going to control the team and manage and control the team, things like that.”

The Bears interviewed Kingsbury for their offensive coordinator job last year. They passed on him in favor of Shane Waldron, who lasted just nine games before being fired on Nov. 12. Less than three weeks later, the day after an excruciating loss at Detroit on Thanksgiving, Chicago fired a head coach during a season for the first time in franchise history when it let Matt Eberflus go.

Kingsbury is a former quarterback with head coaching experience. He led Arizona to a 28-37-1 record from 2019-2022 with one winning season.

In Washington, he's overseeing an offense that ranks among the league's best with another rookie quarterback in No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels. The Commanders are fourth in the NFL in yards per game and fifth in scoring.

Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson will be one of the top candidates on the job market. And former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is reportedly interested in returning to the sideline after a one-year absence.

The Bears (4-12) are arguably the NFL's biggest disappointment. They came into the season with playoff hopes, only to unravel after a 4-2 start.

Chicago has lost 10 in a row for the second time in general manager Ryan Poles' three seasons. The Bears dropped the final 10 games while tanking in 2022 as part of a franchise-worst 14-game skid that stretched into last year. They've never lost more than 10 straight in one season.

Team president Kevin Warren has said Poles will remain on the job and serve as the “point person” in the search. He has also said Poles would have “final say” if the two have differing opinions on who should be hired.

Williams said he's willing to give his input in the hiring process if management asks. If not, he insisted that's fine, too.

“I know that I’m a rookie and a young guy, so if they make decisions without me, that’s their job to make decisions and make those types of decisions,” Williams said. “If they make a decision like that, just hope and believe and faith that those guys upstairs, they make the right decisions. And so that’s that. If I’m a part of it, then great.”

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Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams attempts a pass against the Seattle Seahawks during the first half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González, who the United States recognized as the winner of last year's presidential election, kicked off a tour of Latin America on Saturday, just days before President Nicolás Maduro is set to be sworn in for a third term in defiance of international pressure.

A crowd of a few hundred Venezuelan migrants broke into shouts of “Edmundo, Presidente” as González emerged from a meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei to wave to supporters from the balcony of the iconic Casa Rosada, or Pink House, in Buenos Aires.

“We are doing whatever the cause of freedom requires,” Milei, an effusive far-right supporter of the Venezuelan opposition, said as he welcomed González to the presidential palace with honors normally reserved for a head of state.

González, a retired diplomat, fled into exile in Spain in September after a judge issued an arrest warrant following the July 28 presidential election, in which Maduro was declared the winner by the National Electoral Council, which is stacked with governing party loyalists.

In recent weeks, he has been vowing to travel to Venezuela to be sworn in for the presidential term, which according to law must begin on Jan. 10. But he hasn't said how he plans to return or wrest power from Maduro, whose party controls all institutions and the military.

On Thursday, Maduro’s government raised the stakes even further, announcing a $100,000 reward for information on González’s whereabouts and plastering the wanted-like bulletin with the retired diplomat's photo on social media and the arrivals board at the country's main airport.

Upon arrival to the Argentine capital, where he twice served as Venezuela’s ambassador more than two decades ago, González posted on social media a short video message expressing solidarity with those imprisoned in Venezuela as part of a crackdown by Maduro.

He said that he would raise with Milei concerns about the well-being of five Maduro opponents who have been sheltering in the Argentine ambassador’s residence in Caracas for nearly 10 months — a diplomatic standoff that has embittered relations between Venezuela and Argentina.

The Biden administration and most European governments have rejected the election's official results, pointing out that authorities didn't provide detailed results as they have in past elections. Meanwhile, copies of tally sheets collected by the opposition from 85% of the nation’s electronic voting machines show that González prevailed by a more than two-to-one margin.

González, 75, was a previously unknown career diplomat when he was thrust into rallying the anti-Maduro coalition as a last-minute stand-in for opposition stalwart María Corina Machado, whom the government banned from running for office.

After speaking with Milei on Saturday, González is scheduled to cross the Rio de la Plata for a meeting with Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou.

A wanted sign of Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez is displayed on the list of departure flights at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, near Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)