Update: In a statement released Saturday, Houston's vice president for athletics, Hunter Yurachek, denied that Art Briles is a candidate for the job.

"Earlier this week Art Briles expressed interest to me regarding the Houston head coach position. 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," he said.

Original story

Houston's coaching search reportedly features a wild array of names, one of which could be extremely controversial.

Former Baylor coach Art Briles is among the names to interview for the Houston job left vacant by Tom Herman's move to Texas, according to ESPN's Brett McMurphy, whose report also mentions former LSU coach Les Miles and Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin as interviewees. A report from Steven Godfrey of SB Nation earlier this week said Kiffin would interview for the Houston job.

The backstory for Briles is marred. He was fired from Baylor this offseason amid an ongoing sexual assault scandal involving a number of former members of the football program. Briles was also named in a Title IX lawsuit against Baylor but was later dismissed as a defendant.

Though Briles was let go, the Bears' assistant coaching staff remained intact and former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe was hired to be an acting coach through the 2016 season. Baylor plays its final regular season game against West Virginia on Saturday.

Briles, who made the rounds at some NFL training camps, made it clear before he wants to coach again -- and soon. While the ongoing situation at Baylor makes Briles' name a toxic one, the fact that Houston would reportedly consider him means he could close to fulfilling his wish of coaching again.

Then again, Briles has a history with the Cougars program. He was the coach at Houston from 2003-07 and went 34-28 before taking the Baylor job. Briles showed up at a Houston practice in August with Ken Bailey, one of the Cougars' top boosters.

Houston enters bowl season with a 9-3 record in Herman's second year.