Baylor’s Fiesta Bowl loss saved Texas from Art Briles

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Disgraced former Baylor Bears head coach Art Briles landed his first head coaching job in college football since 2016 with the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds, a DII mired in a long losing stretch.

Fired from Baylor in 2016 after a major sexual assault scandal, Briles has spent two stints coaching football in Italy, along with a two-year stretch in the high school ranks at Mount Pleasant, before he was hired to coach in Portales.

In an interview with On3’s Brett McMurphy, Briles revealed what a report from the Austin American-Statesman had hinted at when Texas was looking for a replacement for Mack Brown at the end of the 2013 season — the then-Bears head coach had accepted a deal to coach the Longhorns before deciding to stay in Waco after Baylor lost its first-ever BCS appearance in the Fiesta Bowl, a 52-40 defeat by UCF.

“I mean, I was there,” Briles told McMurphy. “If we’d won our bowl game, I would have left Baylor 100 percent. It was done for me because I’m a (state of) Texas guy and (my son) Kendal played there. So it made sense.”

Two days after the Fiesta Bowl, Briles tweeted, “Contrary to reports and rumors I am a Baylor Bear – 2013 Big 12 Champs,” and the school later released a statement confirming his return.

At the time, the long-dormant Baylor program was on the rise under Briles, winning 10 games in 2011 for only the second time in its history thanks to upsets of Oklahoma and Texas that earned Robert Griffin III the Heisman Trophy. Two years later, the Bears beat the Longhorns again on the way to a program-record 11 wins, and Briles was one of the hottest coaches in the country.

Texas ultimately settled on Louisville head coach Charlie Strong, who probably wasn’t even the second or third option for then-athletics director Steve Patterson, the replacement for the legendary DeLoss Dodds. Strong flamed out in three years with a 16-21 record, and Briles was also out at Baylor in 2016 after the release of the Pepper Hamilton report revealed the extent of the athlete misconduct scandal in Waco.

Now the nearly-completed deal with Briles by the Longhorns serves as a major footnote in one of the most disastrous coaching searches in Texas history conducted by one of its most incompetent athletic directors.

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