Grambling State hires ex-Baylor football coach Art Briles as offensive coordinator

Art Briles, who was fired as Baylor's head coach in 2016 following the university's investigation into campus-wide allegations of sexual assault, has been hired as Grambling State's offensive coordinator, an athletics department spokesman confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.

Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson was hired as Grambling State's head coach in December.

Briles, 66, has been out of college coaching since May 2016, when Baylor officials suspended him with intent to terminate for his role in the school's sexual assault scandal. He later reached an undisclosed financial settlement with Baylor, where he coached from 2008 to 2015, posting a 65-37 record and winning a share of back-to-back Big 12 titles in 2013 and 2014.

In 2018, Briles coached an American football team in Italy. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League had hired him in August 2017, but the team reneged on the offer the same day after receiving backlash for the decision.

In February 2019, then-Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson attempted to hire Briles as his team's offensive coordinator, but Hopson was overruled by university president Rodney Bennett.

«I believe he is a man who deserves a second chance,» Hopson wrote in a statement disagreeing with the school's decision. «He is a man that seemed sincere [and] humble in his interview [and] personally he committed no crime. He may not have acted in the proper protocol, but that should be my job at Southern Miss! He was interviewing for an assistant position, even though I believe he will be a head coach at a major program in the near future.»

Hopson resigned as Southern Miss coach after just one game in September 2020.

Briles coached at Mount Vernon High School in Texas in 2019 and 2020.

Ba