Big 12 Football: TTU AD considering Art Briles for head coach?

A really surprising move helped to get the Big 12 football coaching carousel moving in the past week. The Texas Tech Red Raiders elected to part ways with head coach Matt Wells following a three-year stint roughly in Lubbock. Wells, a former Utah State Aggies head coach, actually looked to get Texas Tech off to a pretty good start this fall.

Texas Tech currently sits with a record of 5-3 (2-3 Big 12) following a tough close loss to the Kansas State Wildcats last weekend. Wells already had mounted a season-high in wins this fall during his time as Texas Tech’s head coach.

For those reasons, it felt like the timing of the Wells firing was a bit confusing. But such is life in a college football world this fall that features a fast-moving coaching carousel thus far. Texas Tech is now the first Big 12 program to have a head coaching job opening.

The Red Raiders join the likes of the Washington State Cougars, LSU Tigers, and USC Trojans, as the Power Five programs that now have head coaching vacancies. The other two FBS programs currently with head coaching vacancies are the Georgia Southern Eagles and UConn Huskies.

And given how fast the coaching carousel has moved around the FBS already this season, expect more openings to come about in the not-too-distant future.

One name that has come up in the past year or so in the wake of Wells’ seat heating up at Texas Tech is the former Baylor Bears controversial head coach Art Briles. After getting hired as a high school football head coach in Mount Vernon in the last few years, Briles has started to see his name come up in more discussions among head coaching vacancies.

Big 12 football coaching carousel likely won’t include Art Briles in the Texas Tech job search

But nothing concrete has come about yet.

Briles’ name was sure to come up with the Texas Tech job opening this fall. Texas Tech athletic Kirby Hocutt also discussed the idea of the school courting Briles for the head coaching job in the near future. While Hocutt mentioned that he essentially isn’t ruling out any candidates this early on in the job search, he still believes that the idea of including Briles in this discussion could be problematic.

More specifically, Hocutt noted that Briles being included at this point in the Texas Tech head coaching interview process could be “divisive” to the football program and school as a whole.

At the moment, it doesn’t sound like Hocutt and the Red Raiders are seriously considering Briles as a candidate to be their next head coach. But this is a storyline worth following as this abrupt news that Texas Tech will be replacing Wells as head coach can greatly impact the Big 12 landscape as a whole.

This is also something that could open the door to further movement on the coaching carousel around the Big 12, and Power Five altogether.

Some other potential coaching candidates to watch in connection with the Red Raiders are SMU head coach Sonny Dykes, UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, and Baylor assistant head coach Joey McGuire. And although Art might not be a realistic coaching candidate for the Red Raiders, Arkansas offensive coordinator Kendal Briles could be in the running for this job.