WACO, Texas (KWTX) – Nearly a decade after being fired by Baylor University former Head Football Coach, Art Briles, spoke publicly in Waco this morning at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
Briles was greeted with a packed house and standing ovation at the Lonestar Luncheon.
Several of Briles’ former players were in attendance as well as Baylor legendary head coach Grant Teaff.
“This is extremely, you know, gratifying, heartwarming, and just touches my soul,” said Briles.
Baylor great Bryce Petty joined his former head coach on the stage to reminisce about Baylor’s back-to-back Big 12 championships in 2013 and 2014, but this was the Art Briles show.
The event mainly focused on Briles’ tenure at Baylor having the coach go back through his memories of his time in Waco.
“That first year in 2014 you had another 11-2 season,” said Bruce Gietzen, the MC for the event.
“We had George Bush rooting for SMU the first game is the only thing I remember,” joked Briles.
Maybe the most revelatory moment of the event was when Briles admitted that he was in talks to potentially take the University Texas job following the 2013 season.
“Honestly if we would have won that game (the Fiesta Bowl against UCF), it might have come to fruition,” said Briles.
“But I had all these guys that had come up with us and made the journey to get to where we were at. Honestly at that time I felt like I would have been betraying them and the university.”
And when asked if he was open to coaching again, Briles was coy.
“I’m day-to-day right now,” said Briles.
After being fired from Baylor in 2016, Briles has made coaching stops in Italy, Mount Vernon high school, and was briefly hired as the offensive coordinator at Grambling in 2022.
Briles has not coached in college since.
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