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Report: Art Briles not a candidate for Liberty job despite relationship with AD Ian McCaw

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•11/28/22
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Baylor coach Art Briles waves to fans following a game against Oklahoma State on Nov. 21, 2015. (Tom Pennington / Getty Images)

Following the news Monday that Auburn is finalizing a deal with Hugh Freeze to become its next head coach, the Liberty job is now open. Despite a connection with current Liberty athletics director Ian McCaw, former Baylor coach Art Briles will not be a candidate, apparently.

Stadium’s Brett McMurphy reported that bit of news on Twitter on Monday afternoon.

Briles was fired at Baylor in 2015 following a sexual assault scandal. McCaw was Baylor’s athletics director at the time. Briles returned to coaching in 2018, taking a job with the Italian Football League club Guelfi Firenze.

He spent one season there, then returned stateside to coach at Mount Vernon High School in Texas from 2019-20. He returned to Guelfi Firenze for the 2022 campaign.

With Art Briles out, Liberty job should attract quality candidates

Over the last decade or so Liberty has emerged as one of the more powerful independent programs in the country. The university has poured money into the football program, producing some strong results.

After former coach Turner Gill led the program to the second round of the FCS playoffs in 2014, the Flames eventually transitioned to the FBS level in 2018.

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Freeze took over in 2019.

He had instant success during his four-year stint there, paving the way for his return to the SEC at Auburn. The Flames have won at least eight games in each of Freeze’s four seasons.

The high-water mark came during the COVID-impacted 2020 campaign, when Freeze’s squad went 10-1.

So while the transfer portal is always a potentially detrimental factor when a program loses a coach who’s having high-level success, the next coach should inherit a relatively talented group.

But Art Briles and the Liberty job apparently won’t mesh.

Liberty finished its regular season on a three-game losing streak, falling to 8-4 on the season after upsetting Arkansas 21-19 on Nov. 5.