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In a few months, we'll find out whether Art Briles is toxic or still revered. There's a real chance many people are going to be disappointed, if not completely dumbfounded, at the result.

Briles, who was fired from Baylor earlier this summer amid a scathing sexual assault scandal involving former football players, has been trying to clear his name since his ouster. Furthermore, he's made it clear -- abundantly so -- that he wants to get back into coaching sooner rather than later.

Sooner as in 2017, to be specific.

Appearing at a training camp with the Dallas Cowboys earlier this month, Briles stated (per ESPN), "Unfortunately, some job will come open. I've never rooted against anybody or any team, but that's the nature of the business, so we'll see what happens then. But like I said, it's going to be a new journey, and I'm excited to take it. I really am."

If he wanted to, Briles could coach again next season. It doesn't mean it would be his dream job, but he'd land somewhere. A Power Five program wouldn't be out of the cards, either.

Briles is a football genius, and the talented and gifted tend to receive breaks more often than others -- especially if the details of their shortcomings are fuzzy.

We'll get to that point in a minute. What's hurting Briles right now -- other than the scandal to which he's still undeniably attached, that is -- are his words. What remains to be seen is how much it hurts him long-term. Again, something tells me it's not going to hit him too hard or last too long.

Surveying a Houston Texans training camp Tuesday, Briles told reporters he's "never done anything illegal, immoral or unethical."

Never?

His remarks were understandably lambasted on social media. Briles is human like the rest of us, and no human ever has lived a life without doing anything illegal, immoral or unethical. To make such broad statements in the aftermath of the worst sexual assault scandal in college athletics since Penn State in 2011 is, like many things said by Baylor officials in recent months, tone-deaf.

It's not hard for Briles to say he's at least partially responsible for what happened under his watch and that he would have done things differently. He said just that, in fact, not but two months ago. At minimum, that's public relations 101. Hopefully, though, he will acknowledge that he's learned something from the Baylor story.

Though we likely won't ever find out exactly what Briles did or didn't know, exactly what he did or didn't do -- only Briles and a handful of other people know that due to there being no paper trail for the Pepper Hamilton report -- the fact remains these missteps occurred while he was the head honcho at Baylor.

He had to go, for Baylor's sake. So did the entire coaching staff. (They didn't, but that's a story for another day.) So did the university's top administrators. That's just the way these things work.

Briles' comments certainly don't make him look good. However, there's one key piece of information that could save the embattled head coach, even from his own misguided statements, effectively putting him back on the sidelines on the timeline he projected:

He's not mentioned anywhere by name in Baylor's Findings of Fact from Pepper Hamilton's conclusions. Not once.

No one from the coaching staff is, actually. The Findings of Fact only indicts members of the "football staff" without specifying further.

This fact does not exist in a vacuum, of course. There's the whole Title IX lawsuit filed against Baylor that names Briles specifically. But as far as concrete details go, provided by the person hired by Baylor to unearth them, Briles is technically clean ... for now, anyway. And for anyone looking for a physical "Hamilton Report," there is none.

So while what happened at Baylor rightly cost Briles his job, it does not prevent him from being re-hired. Any athletic director who chooses to do so can point to the summary created by Briles' former employer.

The danger of hiring Briles is that something more specific could surface in the legal arena. The very thing protecting Briles at the moment -- a lack of facts -- also presents the risk.

It's a risk that some school is going to take, however. If we've learned anything about college football, it's that second (and third ... and fourth) chances for brilliant minds aren't uncommon.

Briles is the man, after all, who transformed a Big 12 doormat into a national power, morphing the landscape of the conference away from the likes of Texas.

Briles is the man who completely restructured his offense last season, without a quarterback, to run for 645 yards against North Carolina in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

There are already Power Five programs desperate enough to hire a man verbally stumbling to protect his legacy as long as he can average 40 points per game. A program in need will hire someone associated with an egregious sexual assault scandal that violates every standard a university is supposed to uphold as long as he performs another on-field resurrection.

This program will catch copious amounts of grief at first, make no mistake. They'll have earned it, too. But eventually the groans will subside and football will take over.

We'll all realize, yet again, that what the masses want is not the same as what the masses get. And if this story somehow falls by the wayside, in time, Briles will be back at a Power Five program. His career won't be the same, but it won't be irreparably damaged.

Briles hasn't been charged with anything. He hasn't been arrested. Unless that changes, that's going to be good enough for some school. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Two years ago, James Franklin left Vanderbilt for Penn State, of all places, amid a rape scandal.

In the meantime, Briles is going to keep insisting he's not culpable and that he'll be back coaching sooner rather than later. He's probably right, even if it's the wrong approach.

But Briles' resume is going to do some of the talking for him, too. And it only takes one person to listen.