Florida Atlantic coach Lane Kiffin told ESPN on Wednesday that former Baylor coach Art Briles is not a consultant for the Owls’ program, formally or informally, and has never been to practice.
Briles’ son, Kendal Briles, is the FAU offensive coordinator and was quoted recently as saying he talks to his father daily about such things as personnel and getting players in the right spots.
“Somebody texted me and wanted to know why I hired Art Briles, and I was like, ‘What?'” Kiffin said. “He’s absolutely not a consultant and has never been to practice or spoken to our team. That’s classic ‘somebody trying to make it a story’ because it’s Art Briles and Lane Kiffin.”
Kiffin said he’s called Art Briles “probably twice” to let him know that Kendal was doing a good job.
“He’s a coach’s dad just like mine, and I told him that his son is doing a really good job, which all dads, especially coach’s dads, love to hear,” Kiffin said. “It’s no different than when you call a player’s parent and tell them their son is doing well. And in the course of that, I’ve asked him a few questions because it’s obviously his [offensive] system that he’s run for years. So I’ve asked him a couple of questions about alignments of players or something like that.”
Kendal Briles also mentioned that he sent his father film of the Owls’ offense, but Kiffin said that was overblown.
“Kendal sent his dad our spring game to let him see how he was calling plays and running the system,” Kiffin said. “I have not spoken to [Art Briles] about him watching that film. It was just his son sending his dad film so he could see what he was doing, nothing more than that.”
Art Briles was fired in 2016 after an investigation determined Baylor mishandled reports of alleged sexual and physical assaults, some by football players.