Art Briles is on campus to interview for Southern Miss’ vacant offensive coordinator job, according to Patrick Magee of the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald.
The interview is the closest Briles has come to an American coaching job since his ouster as Baylor’s head coach in May of 2016. He was briefly hired and then quickly fired from an offensive coordinator job in the Canadian Football League in 2017, and has since taken a coaching job in Italy. In fact, he was so toxic as recently as 2017 that Lane Kiffin had to furiously way away a report that Briles had unofficially joined the Florida Atlantic staff as a consultant, when Kendal Briles was on staff as the Owls’ offensive coordinator.
However, close to three years have passed since his firing and the Southern Miss interview is evidence the tide may be turning toward the disgraced coach. The younger Briles has held jobs at three different FBS schools over the past three years, with Florida State paying up for his services earlier this winter. Hugh Freeze is back in the game at Liberty, where he works under another scandal-ridden figure in former Baylor AD Ian McCaw.
McCaw, by the way, believes Briles will be “largely exonerated.”
If and when that point ever arrives, the elder Briles would jump to the front of the line of coaching free agents because there’s never been any doubt about his coaching ability. He took Baylor from the Kansas of its day to back-to-back Big 12 champions. His teams led the nation in scoring for three straight years, and his 2013 team remains the highest-scoring team in the highest-scoring decade in college football history.
In fact, depending on how Monday’s reported interview goes, Briles may not even have to wait to be “largely exonerated” to get another job.