Art Ray Briles is an American football coach, currently offensive coordinator for the Grambling State University. Briles was the head coach of the Houston Cougars from 2002 to 2007 and the Baylor Bears from 2008 to 2015.
Art Briles: Stephenville| Liberty| How old is| Offense| New job
Stephenville:
Briles’ introduction to football came early, a coach’ son who grew up to play quarterback under his dad and capture all-state honors at Rule High School in West Texas.
Briles switched to wide receiver at the University of Houston, where he played from 1974 to 1976 and was part of the ’76 Cougars team that won the Southwest Conference and beat Maryland in the Cotton Bowl.
Liberty:
At Stephenville, Briles went 135-29-2 from 1988 to 1999 and captured four state championships. It was during this time that Briles transformed the Yellow Jacket offense from a running attack to a passing machine. These efforts earned Briles credit for bringing the spread attack to Texas high school football.
This was also the year that tragedy struck when both of Briles’ parents and his aunt were killed in a car crash as he prepared for an Oct. 16, 1976 game with SMU.
How old is:
66 years
3 December 1955
This provided the launch pad to the head job at Houston in 2003. There, Briles took a Cougar team that was only one season removed from a 0-11 finish and hadn’t hit double digits since 1990 to a 10-4 mark in 2006. The run included Houston’s first Conference USA title in a decade.
Briles landed the Baylor job in November of 2007, taking over a program that hadn’t finished a season ranked since 1986.
Offense:
Baylor fired then-head coach Briles in 2016 after an independent investigation by law firm Pepper Hamilton into the school’s handling of sexual violence allegations revealed a football program where players were “above the rules” with “no culture of accountability for misconduct.”
In addition, the findings “reflect significant concerns about the tone and culture within Baylor’s football program as it relates to accountability for all forms of athlete misconduct.”
New Job:
While Briles was taking the program to unprecedented heights during his eight-year tenure, going 65-37 with two Big 12 championships, one lawsuit filed in 2017 alleged that at least 52 rapes by more than 30 football players happened over a four-year period.
When allegations were brought to Briles or others inside the football program, Pepper Hamilton found, “The choices made by football staff and athletics leadership, in some instances, posed a risk to campus safety and the integrity of the University.
In certain instances, including reports of a sexual assault by multiple football players, athletics and football personnel affirmatively chose not to report sexual violence and dating violence to an appropriate administrator outside of athletics.”
