TCU earned a lot of goodwill and praise after their historic 2022 season. The Horned Frogs leapfrogged from a 5-7 season all the way into the College Football Playoff Championship Game. Now with 2023 approaching, the team is reorganizing. Through that though, they may have made a questionable hire.
The program has hired Kendal Briles to be their offensive coordinator. The move was rumored for some time but was made official on Thursday. Jamie Plunkett of Frogs Today tweeted the news. “TCU officially announces the hiring of Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator/quarterback coach.”
#TCU officially announces the hiring of Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator/quarterback coach. pic.twitter.com/knuUbi38Lf
— Jamie Plunkett (@FrogPreacher) January 19, 2023
It doesn’t require too much thinking to understand why this might be a questionable hire. Kendal’s father, Art, is essentially persona non grata in college football (unless someone decides he’s not, naturally). A disgraceful scandal several years ago wrapped Art up as several high-ranking officials, including Briles, failed many after they failed to take action after alleged rapes and sexual assaults by Baylor Bears football players.
The scandal involved Kendal, as well. According to a 2017 lawsuit, Briles had made unsavory and gross comments about women to Baylor recruits. The Orlando Sentinel wrote in 2019, “In a lawsuit filed against Baylor in 2017, Kendal Briles was accused of promising football recruits access to white women on campus. The university used what was described as a ‘show ’em a good time’ approach with recruits, taking them to strip clubs and making women in Baylor’s hostess program available for sex in addition to providing drugs and alcohol, according to a Sun Sentinel report on the lawsuit.”
Fittingly, that article was published after Florida State needed to defend then-head coach Willie Taggart’s hiring of… you guessed it: Kendal Briles.
Resounding disappointment and familiar feelings trickled out on Thursday.
SportsDayDFW already believes that head coach Sonny Dykes is potentially testing his goodwill with the TCU fanbase. Hard not to think so.
TCU hiring Baylor ex Kendal Briles will test Sonny Dykes’ goodwill with fans | @ChuckCarltonDMN https://t.co/AjocHgmGib
— SportsDayDFW (@SportsDayDFW) January 19, 2023
Ishmael Johnson of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football said that Jimbo Fisher no longer has the most uncomfortable coaching staff. Think of what that says, considering.
We went right off the top with the Kendal Briles hire and just kinda talked…why and also Jimbo no longer having the most uncomfortable coordinator hire of the off-season!
UNT vs TXST talk shortly after that first segment. https://t.co/BaWh302qmV
— Ishmael Johnson (@IshmaelRJohnson) January 19, 2023
The Washington Post writer Timothy Bella expressed that the then-rumored hire was “incredibly disappointing.”
This is so incredibly disappointing that I’m just gonna point to Gil’s tweet as why I am dead against this hire. It’s such a bad look for TCU. Kendal Briles isn’t worth pissing away all of the incredible good will built up over the last year. https://t.co/u0AqTQPSy1
— Timothy Bella (@TimBella) January 19, 2023
Gil LeBreton of DFWPressBox called it “A regrettable decision that spits in the face of all female students at TCU as well as many of its fans. Briles has never publicly shown any remorse for what happened at Baylor and the kind of people he and his father recruited.”
A regrettable decision that spits in the face of all female students at #TCU as well as many of its fans. Briles has never publicly shown any remorse for what happened at Baylor and the kind of people he and his father recruited. https://t.co/8OAYlICdva
— Gil LeBreton (@gilebreton) January 18, 2023
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022