Art Briles

Arthur Ray Briles (born December 3, 1955) is an American football coach who is currently the head coach for the Guelfi Firenze in the Italian Football League.

Playing quarterback and earning all-state honors, Briles as a senior in 1973 led Rule to the Texas Class B state championship game, where they lost to Big Sandy, led by David Overstreet and Lovie Smith.

Briles' parents and aunt died in a car crash on U.S. Route 380 near Newcastle, Texas, while on their way to Dallas to see him play in a game on October 16, 1976.

His then-girlfriend and now wife, the former Jan Allison, had planned to make the trip with his family, but decided to stay behind in Rule to attend a friend's bridal shower.

After finishing the 1976–77 academic year, Briles left Houston and transferred to Texas Tech, which Jan was attending at the time, to complete his bachelor's degree, which he earned in 1979.

He earned a master's degree in education at Abilene Christian University before entering coaching.

I saw how [Briles] went from running a wishbone offense to a multiple offense that used the shotgun and different kinds of snaps.

When he began running the spread in Stephenville, he really put defenses in a bind.

Briles accepted a scholarship offer by Bill Yeoman at the University of Houston, where he switched to wide receiver and played three seasons, including the 1977 Cotton Bowl Classic.

From 1980 to 1983, he served as an assistant at Sweetwater High School.

Briles served as a head football coach in Texas from 1984 to 1999 and 2019–2020.

Briles began his coaching career as an assistant at Sundown High School.

At age 28, he became head coach at 2A Hamlin High School, where he coached from 1984 to 1985.

He guided the team to a 27–1–1 record including a 35–19 loss to Electra High School in the 1985 state semifinals.

His instant success caught the attention of bigger schools, so Briles left Hamlin for 5A Georgetown High School in 1986, where he had a difficult two-year span in the school's first two seasons at the highest classification in Texas high school football at the time.

Briles left the school in 1987 with a 4–15–1 overall record.

In 1988, he took over head coaching duties at 4A Stephenville High School in Stephenville, Texas, a school that was playing in the same area as state powerhouse Brownwood High School and had not reached the playoffs in football since 1952.

After a 4–5–1 season in 1989, Briles' Stephenville squads made the playoffs in 1990 and ever since.

Although Stephenville's offense was devastating throughout the 1990s, Briles shifted his offensive scheme from a running game in the early 1990s to a passing game in the late 90s.

In the late 1990s, Briles adapted the spread offense and today is one of the coaches credited for introducing it to Texas high school football.

During Briles' tenure they won four state championships, including back-to-back titles in 1993 and 1994, and then again in 1998 and 1999.

In the 1993 and '94 state finals, Briles' Stephenville squads faced La Marque, then coached by Briles' defensive coordinator at Houston, Alan Weddell.

Briles' record at Stephenville was 135–29–2.

Stephenville's first two state championship teams scored 89 touchdowns rushing in 1993, and 96 touchdowns rushing in 1994, which was second and third all-time in the nation, respectively, only behind Big Sandy's national record 114 touchdowns rushing from the 1975 season.

His 1998 team posted 8,664 yards of total offense, breaking the 73-year-old national record 8,588 yards originally established by Pine Bluff High School in 1925.

Briles was also known for developing quarterbacks, sending six of his former players to Division I colleges, including Kelan Luker, Branndon Stewart, Kevin Kolb, and his son Kendal Briles.

Briles ended his first high school coaching stint in 1999 with a record of 165–46–3.

Briles left Stephenville after the 1999 season to join Mike Leach's staff at Texas Tech.

Briles was the head coach of the Houston Cougars from 2002 to 2007 and the Baylor Bears from 2008 to 2015.

While serving as running backs coach, Briles improved Texas Tech's rushing average every year from 66.4 yards a game in his first year to 99.6 yards a game in 2002.

He also coached all-conference backs and later NFL players Ricky A. Williams, Shaud Williams, and Taurean Henderson.

In addition, the first player he recruited to Texas Tech, an undersized wide receiver Wes Welker, went on to catch more than 250 passes and return an NCAA-record eight punts for touchdowns while at Tech, and then had even greater success in the NFL with five Pro Bowl appearances.

In 2003, Briles was hired as head coach at the University of Houston, where he took over a program that had an 8–26 record under the previous coach, Dana Dimel.

The Cougars went 0–11 two years before Briles' arrival.

In his first season, Briles led the Cougars to a 7–5 record, including a 54–48 triple-overtime loss to Hawaii, in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

After a 3–8 season in 2004, Briles guided the Cougars to a 6–6 season and another bowl game in 2005.

He is the subject of a biography written by Nick Eatman titled Looking Up: My Journey from Tragedy to Triumph (2013).

A native of Rule, Texas, Briles attended Rule High School, where he was coached by his father.

He is the author of Beating Goliath: My Story of Football and Faith (2014).

His college coaching career ended with his dismissal from the team in 2015 as a result of the Baylor University sexual assault scandal.