On Saturday morning, ESPN reported that former Baylor coach Art Briles was going to interview for the vacant coaching position at Houston.
A little over two hours later, that no longer seems to be the case. 247Sports and the Houston Chronicle reported that Briles is no longer in the running to coach the Cougars for the second time in his career. After those reports were published on Twitter, Houston athletics vice president Hunter Yurachek issued a statement.
"Earlier this week Art Briles expressed interest to me regarding the Houston head coach position," Yurachek said. "After discussion with University of Houston leadership, we developed a list of candidates to be interviewed that did not include Art. At this time, we will have no further comment on potential candidates or timeline."
Briles was fired in May after a law firm hired by Baylor discovered that football coaches and staff took "improper steps in response to disclosures of sexual assault or dating violence" that kept Baylor from fulfilling its legal obligations.
The Baylor regents said Briles was aware of one sexual assault involving football players. Since 2011, 17 women reported domestic violence or sexual assault incidents involving 19 players, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Briles was the only coach removed after the investigation results were made public. Baylor chancellor Ken Starr and athletic director Ian McCaw resigned from their jobs. McCaw was recently hired as Liberty University's athletic director on Monday.
Briles is partly responsible for Houston's current prominence. Briles coached at Houston from 2003 to 2007 for five years and went 62-34 before leaving for Baylor.
He was succeeded by Kevin Sumlin, who's been at Texas A&M for the last five seasons. Herman became the most recent coach to turn a successful stint at Houston into a more prominent job.
