Big 12 Football: Grambling hires Art Briles as new OC

A former Big 12 football head coach for the Baylor Bears, Art Briles, wasn’t really expected to land an actual FCS or FBS major coaching job for a good while now. At least that was the expectation for most throughout the college football landscape.

Yet, the FCS Grambling State Tigers reportedly (confirmed by a report from ESPN) made the move to hire the former Baylor head coach Briles as their next offensive coordinator. Grambling State athletic director Trayvean Scott reportedly confirmed the move that the Tigers are hiring Briles as their OC in 2022.

Briles will be serving on this Grambling State staff under newly hired head coach Hue Jackson. The former Cleveland Browns head coach Jackson is one of the more notable new hires among the bench bosses around the FCS landscape so far this offseason.

Former Big 12 football HC Art Briles lands the Grambling OC job

Here are some of the finer points in this ESPN piece regarding Grambling’s hire of Briles as their next offensive coordinator this week.

"Scott told ESPN in a phone interview Thursday that he spent about 10 days researching Briles before formally supporting Jackson’s decision to hire him. He said Jackson has autonomy to bring forward coaching candidates, and Scott vetted Briles after Jackson suggested him.“I’m rooted in fact,” Scott told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “I know a lot of things are said and done. We felt it [was appropriate] to give him a chance to really redeem himself after understanding where the facts lie.”"

This ESPN piece mentions how this will be Briles’ first coaching job at the collegiate level since the Baylor scandal saw him see the door in Waco back in 2016. Since seeing the door in Waco more than five years ago, Briles was the head coach with Mount Vernon High School in Texas in 2019 and 2020. He was also the head coach of the Italian Football League (IFL) club Guelfi Firenze for the 2018 season.

It looked like Guelfi Firenze hired Briles to take their head coaching job again in 2022. But that came before he took the Grambling job that was reported this week.

This is an interesting move from Jackson and Grambling still early on in the 2022 offseason. The tone of voice for which the Grambling staff and administration are talking about this hire seems to be giving the idea that he’s getting a shot at redemption with this job.

Briles spent eight years as Baylor’s head coach and seven years as the head coach of the Houston Cougars, dating back to 2003. His record as Baylor’s head coach from 2008-2015 sits at 65-37 (.637 winning percentage).