Art Briles has been set on returning to coaching as soon as he could. With no doors open in the college game or the NFL, Briles is now heading north to take on a role as an offensive coordinator with the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The Tiger-Cats, coached by another former college coach you may be familiar with in June Jones, highlighted all of the personal highs of Briles’ coaching career at Baylor and Houston, and expectedly avoided any mention of why Briles is no longer coaching at Baylor in the press release to announce the new hire. That is because the school removed him as head coach amid a significant sexual abuse scandal running within the program with players being accused of sexual crimes and members of the football staff allegedly taking action to cover up details of the abuse. Baylor continues to recover from the stain of the scandal today.
Briles will serve as Jones’ offensive coordinator, which is the role Briles was most likely to take in order to get back in the coaching game. The hire has already been receiving negative feedback on Twitter.
"In eight seasons at Baylor, Briles’ list of accomplishments is headlined by" ... you omitted the only headline that matters. Despicable.
— canØk (@can0k) August 28, 2017
Deapicable move. He can't possibly be worth the grotesque baggage he brings to your organization.
— Banks Thompson (@WilcoWacko) August 28, 2017
— Ralph Amsden (@ralphamsden) August 28, 2017
Baylor temporarily replaced Briles as head coach with former Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe for the 2016 season, and later went on to hire Temple head coach Matt Rhule to be the new full-time head coach starting in the 2017 season.
As far as football is concerned, though, maybe former Baylor Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III has a new place to consider for a football comeback.