Former Baylor head coach Art Briles remains without a coaching job, and according to a report Tuesday, schools are hesitant to bring him in due to questions surrounding his dismissal.
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Athletic Directors Comment on Briles' Coaching Prospects
Tuesday, Jan. 24
Per Travis Haney of 247Sports, multiple anonymous athletic directors believe Briles is unhirable until there is more clarity regarding what he did and didn't know about the sexual assault scandal involving some of his players at Baylor.
According to Haney, one FBS athletic director said the following about Briles' prospects: "There's too much smoke there. You can't become comfortable with it, and I couldn't spend an entire search trying to play judge and jury deciding whether Art Briles is guilty."
Another athletic director provided a similar sentiment:
"No...no. You can't [hire Briles]," the AD said. "There are certain situations for second chances, but that's just not something you can do. You just can't. He's proved to be an excellent offensive coach, but there are lots of excellent coaches out there without the stigma—or something worse...we don't really know at this point—of what happened. That's not something you can bring onto your campus unless you're 100 percent positive that he's been absolved of everything that, at least from the outside, led to him being fired."
Haney reported that sources indicated boosters at Texas Tech and Houston pushed for the schools to hire Briles, but the risk outweighed the potential reward.
There is doubt that Briles could land an FBS head coaching or offensive coordinator job, but a source indicated to Haney that starting over at a lower level could be an option for him: "Everything you hear about the guy, he just wants to coach. He can't stand sitting out, that this is in his blood. So I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped back in at the Division II or Division III level, anywhere just to keep in it."
Briles spent a brief period of time with the Cleveland Browns during the 2016 season as a guest of head coach Hue Jackson, but it didn't lead to a full-time job.
In 13 seasons as a head coach at Houston and Baylor, Briles went 99-65 with nine bowl appearances. He went 65-37 with the Bears and led them to 10 or more wins in four of five seasons from 2011 through 2015.
Baylor dropped to 7-6 without him in 2016.
