Southern Miss considering hiring Art Briles is deplorable

Most recently in relative exile coaching in Italy, Art Briles may be on his way back to college football stateside.

Art Briles most recently served as head coach of a pro football team in Italy, but he may be on his way back to college football in the United States. According to Patrick Magee of the Sun Herald, Briles is set to interview for the offensive coordinator post at Southern Miss.

Briles has been out of coaching since being fired by Baylor in May 2016, as the scandal attached to the failure to report player misconduct (including violence against women) led to the dismantling of the football program. He was hired as head coach of the CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats in August of 2017, but the league faced criticism for the move and he was let go quickly.

Athletic director Ian McCaw also lost his job at Baylor and has since become the athletic director at Liberty.

Just last week McCaw told CBS Sports he believed Briles would be “largely exonerated” as the NCAA continues to investigate what went on at Baylor, and would be “in the 2019 hiring cycle.” That points to Briles being in the mix for head coaching jobs after next season, but he may get back in sooner.

Shannon Dawson spent three seasons as Southern Miss’ offensive coordinator, but he has left to join Dana Holgorsen’s staff at Houston. So head coach Jay Hopson has a notable spot to fill on his coaching staff, and at this point, there aren’t a lot of good options out there. That said, the reports Dawson was leaving to reunite with Holgorsen came on Jan. 11-Jan. 12. So there’s been some time to vet and interview other outside candidates or consider the easier transition of an internal promotion, and now Hopson has suddenly landed on Briles.

Hugh Freeze and Rich Rodriguez have recently gotten second chances in their coaching careers, as head coach at Liberty and offensive coordinator at Ole Miss. But what brought Briles’ exit at Baylor was on a different level. The mere idea Southern Miss is thinking about hiring him right now is at least troubling, and more specifically deplorable.