Former Baylor coach Art Briles apparently was an unwelcome visitor on the field at Oklahoma after the Sooners beat SMU 28-11 in Norman, Okla., on Saturday night.
Briles, fired by Baylor in 2016 as the school investigated a wave of reports of sexual assaults by players, has been kept from other jobs since then because of negative fan reaction. And Oklahoma fans took to social media Saturday night to voice displeasure at seeing Briles on the field, wearing an Oklahoma shirt.
“I was made aware of it, just before I came in here, that he was [on the field],” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables told reporters just after the game. “That’s being dealt with.”
Briles is the father-in-law of Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator, Jeff Lebby, who said Briles attended the game with family.
“That’s the grandfather to my two kids, so he was down with our entire family well after the game, but he was down there. … He’s with his entire family,” Lebby said, per ESPN.
According to the ESPN report, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione issued a statement that said, “I was just as disappointed as many of our fans when I learned of the postgame situation tonight. It shouldn’t have happened and it was my expectation it never would, based on boundaries we previously set. I’ve addressed it with the appropriate staff.”
Fan reaction kept Briles, 67, from filling coaching jobs at Grambling State and with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.
ESPN reported he has been hired to coach the Dallas entry in the International Football Alliance, a new professional league scheduled to start next June. So far two teams in Texas and three in Mexico have been announced.
–Field Level Media
