MOUNT VERNON, Texas — Art Briles was back at his roots Monday, coaching a high school football team in Texas after a season in Italy and more than three years after the two-time Big 12 champion coach was fired by Baylor in the wake of a sexual assault scandal.
Briles is now coaching at Mount Vernon, a school just off Interstate 30 in East Texas between Dallas and the Arkansas line. He hasn’t coached high school in 20 years, after winning four state championships in Stephenville, which is located on the other side of Dallas.
While expressing his gratitude about being back in Texas, where all of his coaching career has been except for the time in Italy, the 63-year-old Briles didn’t discuss his time at Baylor or departure from the school.
A written statement from his attorneys was released before Briles’ post-practice availability that said the coach “understands and appreciates the public’s interest in what happened at Baylor.” His attorneys, however, said he couldn’t talk about that because he is the defendant in a civil lawsuit.