Art Briles hired by Eastern New Mexico, 9 years after Baylor fired him amid scandal

By Canadian Press on November 24, 2025.

PORTALES, N.M. (AP) — Art Briles was hired as football coach at Eastern New Mexico on Monday, getting his first college head coaching job since Baylor fired the two-time Big 12 champion more than nine years ago amid a sexual assault scandal at the world’s largest Baptist university.

An external investigation revealed in May 2016 that Baylor had for years mishandled numerous sexual assault allegations by students, including some against football players. Briles has said that he didn’t cover up reports of assaults by his players. An NCAA infractions report in 2021 ripped him for failing to look into horrific and potentially criminal allegations, but he wasn’t found guilty of any NCAA violations.

Briles, who turns 70 next month, was hired as offensive coordinator at Grambling State in 2022, but stepped down less than a week later, saying he didn’t want to be a distraction at the prominent HBCU. Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson had attempted to hire Briles as the program’s OC in 2019, but university administration eventually vetoed the move.

After coaching professional football in Italy, Briles return to Texas and was the head coach at Mount Vernon High School for two seasons (2019-20).

The athletic director at Eastern New Mexico is Kevin Fite, who was the associate AD for compliance and eligibility at Houston when Briles was coach there before going to Baylor. Briles had a 34-28 record at Houston from 2003-07, then went 65-37 with the Bears from 2008-15.

Eastern New Mexico, an NCAA Division II school that plays in the Lone Star Conference, just completed a 3-8 season. The Greyhounds fired coach Kelley Lee, who was 32-34 in his six seasons.

The university about 250 miles from Briles’ hometown of Rule, Texas.

Baylor paid Briles more than $15 million after firing him. He later acknowledged making mistakes and apologized for “some bad things” that happened under his watch.

Briles’ son-in-law, Jeff Lebby, is Mississippi State’s head coach. His son, Kendal, is the offensive coordinator at TCU.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The Associated Press