TICATS ADD ART BRILES, UPDATE WITH SCOTT MITCHELL, CFL COMMENTS
HAMILTON – Art Briles, who was fired last year as the head football coach at Baylor in the wake of a sexual assault scandal within his program, has joined the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats as an assistant offensive head coach.
June Jones, who replaced Kent Austin as head coach last week, made the announcement Monday. Austin remains with Hamilton as its vice-president of football operations.
Briles, 61, comes to the CFL with over 35 years of coaching experience, including stints as head coach at Houston (2003-07) and Baylor (2008-15). But Baylor’s football program came under fire in 2016 when it was revealed university officials failed to take action following alleged sexual assaults.
A report found the football program under Briles mishandled multiple allegations of sexual assault against players.
After being fired Briles sued the school, but later dropped the suit.
Briles accumulated a 99-65 overall record as an NCAA head coach and was 3-6 in bowl games. He led Baylor to Big 12 championships in 2013 and 2014 and coached the school’s only Heisman winner, quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Hamilton (0-8) is the CFL’s only winless team. Jones will make his Ticats’ head-coaching debut Sept. 4 against the arch-rival Toronto Argonauts at Tim Hortons Field.
(Canadian Press)
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Ticats President Scott Mitchell told 3DownNation.com on Monday that they were fully aware of Briles’ history at Baylor and they are intent on offering him a second chance. Mitchell added that the CFL head office was aware of Briles’ hiring before today’s announcement.
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STATEMENT FROM THE CFL:
TORONTO (August 28, 2017) — The Canadian Football League (CFL) has released the following statement:
The Commissioner is in continuing discussions with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats regarding the hiring of Art Briles as a coach. We will have no further comment until those discussions have concluded.
RP
@rodpedersen
