Former Baylor coach Art Briles has a new gig, and it's in a rather unorthodox place.
Briles will coach the Guelfi Firenze American Football team -- an Italian team located in Florence -- according to a release from the organization.
"I am grateful to be back on the field coaching football, and doing what I love. Jan and I are excited to arrive in Italy for this new opportunity," Briles said. "I will work tirelessly to make Guelfi Firenze a title contender."
Briles went further in depth on his decision to head overseas with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
"I'm a football coach and it's all I've ever done and all I've ever really had a passion to do; this gives me a chance to be on the field and between the lines," Briles told the Star-Telegram. "[This is] a situation where I can build a team over there and it's inspiring to me. ... It's a situation where I can stay active this fall as a coach and as a person be involved in the game. Who knows what the future holds? It's a golden opportunity for me to get on the field and be involved. I'm jacked about it."
Briles was dismissed as Baylor's head coach amid a massive sexual assault scandal that hit the football program and included several players on the Bears roster. Briles looked back at the circumstances surrounding his dismissal and didn't necessarily own up to what went down within his program.
"I would have done more if I had known more," he said. "When these allegations came out, we found out at the same time you did. I had a meeting with the [Baylor] Board of Regents where I made suggestions that I never had the chance to fulfill; it would have been similar in the NFL that handles the discipline problems that took it out of the football coaches' hands."
Briles went 65-37 in eight years as the coach of the Bears (2008-15). He won Big 12 titles in 2013 and 2014, earning trips to the Fiesta and Cotton Bowls, respectively. The language in Briles' contract with Guelfi Firenze reportedly allows him to return to the United States if a coaching opportunity comes up. Guelfi Firenze's season begins in March 2019.
