Art Briles hopes for 'Hail Mary' to return as Grambling State's offensive coordinator

Art Briles is hoping a Hail Mary can return him to his post as Grambling State's offensive coordinator. But if it never happens, the embattled former Baylor coach will cherish his short time with the Tigers, he said Thursday during an appearance on Jason Whitlock's "Fearless" show. 

Briles resigned from his post at Grambling on Monday, four days after his announced hiring brought intense scrutiny nationally and criticism among the program's most distinguished alumni. 

Doug Williams, a former Grambling coach and one of the greatest players in program history, was particularly critical. He said he was "very disappointed" in the hire and would dissociate with the university if it followed through. Briles resigned from his post on coach Hue Jackson's staff four days later.

"I didn't want Grambling to go through a media flurry that could be avoided," Briles said.

Briles, 66, told Whitlock he spent two weeks coaching at Grambling before the hire was announced. He said he wants to make amends with Williams and would jump at the opportunity to step back into his coordinator role.  Some Grambling football alumni have called for Briles to rescind his resignation. 

"I know that coach Jackson ... talked to Doug Williams earlier this week, and I really don't know how it went ... I would talk with (Williams) anytime just to give him an opportunity to ask me any questions that he wanted to ask and to get to know where my heart is and soul," Briles said. "So I don't know if there is a Hail Mary or not, I would always hope so. You'd hate to always say it's over when maybe it's not over." 

Briles has not been in the college game since being fired as Baylor's coach in 2016 in the wake of an internal investigation into the Texas university's handling of an extensive number of sexual assault accusations on campus, including some against his players. The investigation concluded that Briles presided over a program in which accusations of sexual assault and violence against his players went unchecked. 

"There were 417 (sexual assault allegations) to be exact, and they chose five that happened to be African American football players that they presented to the Board of Reasons," Briles told Whitlock. "It was a campus-wide issue all the way across the board.

"The three or four (board members) running it that time just got to where the narrative wanted to be that it was a football issue, and by terminating me and firing me, everything would be OK at Baylor University. They paid a lot of money to a PR firm to start that narrative and that's basically where we are today. I've got a letter of exoneration from Baylor University Council saying I've never covered anything up, saying I didn't not report an incident ... then I got cleared by the NCAA that there were no violations, they had a five-and-a-half-year investigation."  

More:Some Grambling State football alumni want Art Briles to rescind resignation

More:Art Briles resigns as Grambling State offensive coordinator four days after being hired

Briles said his interest in working at Grambling was impromptu. He expected to be back in Italy for the spring season after coaching there in 2018, until Jackson called him "out of the blue." 

"(He) said, 'Coach, do you want to come coach at Grambling'," Briles told Whitlock. "I was like, 'Yes, sir' because when I was around him in Cleveland (with the Browns), I felt like his heart was in the right place. I felt like he was headed in a direction with athletes at the time, not student-athletes, that showed some care as a person, and that's what I've always been about."

Briles called his two weeks at Grambling "an unbelievable experience," adding that he had already begun to form bonds with players and was brought to tears during his first workout with the team. 

 "That's the hardest thing about this deal with Grambling is, it's about the student athletes. ... It was honestly two of the best weeks I've had in the last six years.

"... Not just Grambling but HBCUs, what Deion's (Sanders) brought there (at Jackson State) and Eddie George (at Tennessee State) and now you got Hue, so I was honored to be a part of it," Briles said. 

Briles also thanked Jackson for giving him a chance. It's at least the third time Briles' history at Baylor has roadblocked his attempt to coach. The other two were with the Canadian Football League's Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2017 and then at Southern Miss in 2018. 

"For what Hue Jackson tried to make happen, I applaud him," Briles said, "because in his mind, he was doing the right thing for those student-athletes."