Meet the New Hires: Art Briles

November 28, 2007 - Head Coach - Baylor University

2003-2006 – Head Coach – University of Houston
2002 - 2002 –Running Backs Coach – Texas Tech
1988-1999 – Head Coach – Stephenville High School (TX)

While Art Briles may just now be beginning his BCS conference head coaching career at Baylor, he has spent the last two decades building up a reputation as one of the nation’s foremost offensive specialists.

Briles’ head coaching success began when he took the reins in 1989 at Stephenville High School in Stephenville, TX. There he took a team that had not been to the playoffs since 1952 and won four state titles. However, in what might be a more important development for his college coaching career, Briles picked up the spread offense in the 1990’s, and made a dominant offense historically good. In 1998, Stephenville had 8,664 yards of total offense, which set a new national high school record.

After fine-tuning his offensive gameplan with Mike Leach at Texas Tech as running backs coach, Briles took over the Houston program in 2003. This was a homecoming of sorts for Briles, as he played three years at Houston as a wide receiver. At Houston he took a team that finished 0-11 two seasons before his arrival, and went 34-28 in five years. His teams made bowl games four out of five seasons.

Briles was able to show his offensive genius while at Houston. The Cougars finished in the top 25 in total offense all but one season under Briles, but what may be more impressive is the fact that the offense was extremely balanced. In both 2006 and 2007 Houston finished in the top 10 in total offense. However, in 2006 the 8^th ranked passing attack led the way, while in 2007 Houston ranked 10^th in the nation rushing the ball. Baylor hopes that Briles can bring this same level of success to Waco.

Another reason Briles was so successful at Houston was the fact that his defense improved every season he was there. In 2003 the total defense ranked at 101^st in the country, but by 2007 Houston moved up to the 42^nd ranked defense. If Briles can build Baylor’s defense up to similar levels, he should be successful in the Big 12.

All in all this can become a very good hire for Baylor. Briles always seems to get the most out of his offenses, and does just enough on defense to be successful. While it is tough to win at Baylor, Briles might be the man that takes the Bears back to a bowl game, where they have not been since a 10-3 loss to Washington State in the 1994 Sun Bowl.