Houston hires Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator

Houston made a discussion-worthy hire Saturday by hiring Kendal Briles as their offensive coordinator. Briles was previously coaching with Lane Kiffin at Florida Atlantic as offensive coordinator.

The hire is a controversial one because of Briles’ alleged involvement in the Baylor scandal under his dad, Art Briles.

There’s never been any doubt that Briles can coach football from a football perspective, Briles can coach an offense. Under Briles, FAU finished ninth in total offense and averaged 40.6 points per game, but it’s his alleged role in the scandal that is making people unhappy. The Houston Chronicle already posted a story about how it was the wrong move, which you can check out here.

My thoughts are simple: this isn’t the right move for Houston. Briles somehow was able to continue to coach even though his baggage is well documented. What kind of message is UH sending to its fans and, more importantly, its students? Fans are already up in arms about the hire.

The fact that the Baylor investigations are FAR FROM OVER makes this even more concerning. Victims are still coming out to add to the accusations, and I wouldn’t want someone who may have contributed to that representing my university.

As a fan, winning is important. But at what cost? UH President Renu Khator’s infamous quote “we’ll fire coaches who go 8-4” is starting to sound more serious by allowing this hire to take place. Winning is clearly the only motivation in this hire, and it’s really unfortunate.

We saw what happened when a fan base isn’t happy by a hire. Tennessee supporters made it very clear that they didn’t want Greg Schiano, and the backlash resulted in Schiano not being hired. Are we in store for a similar situation in Houston? We will find out soon enough.”

3:12 PM UPDATE

It appears Houston has added a clause that they can fire Briles should any more damaging news from his time at Baylor come out.