On February 25, Grambling State hired disgraced former Baylor coach Art Briles as offensive coordinator. Less than a week later, Briles resigned from the position.
Briles has not coached college football since he was fired from Baylor in 2016 in the aftermath of a sexual assault scandal at the University.
The scandal resulted from numerous allegations and convictions for sexual and non-sexual assaults committed between 2012 and 2016 by Baylor University students, including members of the football team.
Briles was hired to the offensive coordinator position by Grambling head coach Hue Jackson. Jackson was previously an NFL head coach for the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns.
The decision immediately drew backlash, but the criticism grew after a social media statement from the Hue Jackson Foundation.
The foundation’s statement said that the Briles’ hiring would “be instrumental in teaching others the importance of knowing how to prevent victimization, proper reporting procedures, provide adequate resources to individuals who have been victimized and develop strong law enforcement partnerships within the community.”
Former Grambling quarterback Doug William expressed distaste at the foundation’s words.
“I don’t know what you get from that statement,” Williams told the Associated Press on Monday. “I don’t think anything needs to be added. Everybody knows what I think about it. I’m not going to change.”
Shortly afterward, Briles announced his resignation on Monday, February 28, saying he did not want to be a “distraction” to the HBCU located in Northern Louisiana.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of your coaching staff at Grambling State University,” Briles said in the statement. “Unfortunately, I feel that my continued presence will be a distraction to you and your team, which is the last thing that I want. I have the utmost respect (for) the University and your players.”
Head coach at Baylor from 2008 to 2015, Briles went 65-37 over his eight seasons and revived Baylor’s football program after decades of poor records.
The Bears were regularly ranked in the Top 25 under Briles and earned two bids to major “New Years Six” bowls. Baylor had four 10-win seasons in five years from 2011 to 2015, according to Associated Press. Before that, the team had only won ten or more games in a season once in its history.
Briles was terminated as Baylor’s head coach after an external investigation conducted by an independent law firm in May 2016. The investigation determined that Baylor had for years mishandled and failed to respond to the numerous sexual assault allegations adequately.
Baylor president Ken Starr and athletic director Ian McCaw also resigned from their positions.
An NCAA panel, which had been investigating the University’s actions for years, released its findings in the summer of 2021. The panel determined that, though Briles did not violate any rules, his actions were unethical.
“[Briles] failed to meet even the most basic expectations of how a person should react to the kind of conduct at issue in this case. Furthermore, as a campus leader, the head coach is held to an even higher standard. He completely failed to meet this standard,” the panel stated.
“In each instance, when the head coach received information from a staff member regarding potential criminal conduct by a football student-athlete, he did not report the information and did not personally look any further into the matter,” the report continued. “His incurious attitude toward potential criminal conduct by his student-athletes was deeply troubling to the panel.”
The NCAA panel placed Baylor on a four-year probation period and handed the University a $5,000 fine, among other minor penalties.
This is not the first time a team has attempted to hire Briles only to pull back. In 2019, Southern Mississippi announced plans to hire Briles as its offensive coordinator. However, the university administration eventually vetoed his hiring.
The Hamilton TigerCats of the Canadian Football League also announced their intent to hire Briles in 2017 as assistant head coach. However, hours after the announcement, amid a wave of criticism, the team reversed course and announced Briles would not be joining the coaching staff. Hamilton owner Bob Young stated the decision to hire him had been “a major blunder.”
Briles did coach for one season in the Italian Football League in 2018.
He was also briefly the head coach at Mount Vernon High School in East Texas, but left Mount Vernon in 2020 after two seasons at the helm. Mount Vernon went 20-6 over the two seasons and reached the state semifinals in Briles’ second year.
