When former Baylor football coach Art Briles was hired as the head coach at tiny Texas school Mt. Vernon, he also got the chance to fill out his own staff again. With 11 openings beneath him and other coaches excited to work with him, regardless of his past (just ask former Gatesville head coach Kyle Cooper, who is now an assistant at Mt. Vernon).
Given his choice, Briles went over and over again to one source: His former players at Baylor.
As reported by Waco CBS affiliate KWTX, five of the 11 assistants Briles hired at Mt. Vernon played for him at Baylor. Per KWTX, Patrick Colbert, Davion Hall, Jayson Clements, Brad Willard, and Lynx Hawthorne are all coaching for Mt. Vernon during Briles’ first season back as a coach in Texas. Two of his coaches — Colbert and Hawthorne — were with him in Italy during the spring before he returned to the Lone Star State; Colbert was a line coach, as he is at Mt. Vernon, while Hawthorne played for Briles’ Italian squad.
The Baylor overlap is obviously understandable; the timing is about right for former players to now be breaking into coaching, and Briles’ success at Baylor likely inspired some of his former players to follow in his footsteps.
Still, it’s also the case that bringing more of Baylor with him to Mt. Vernon opens the window to more criticism of his past and Mt. Vernon’s decision to hire him despite the sexual assault scandal that led to his departure in Waco.
That’s apparently not on Briles’ mind. After all, practices are underway and he — and his former players turned coaches — have plenty of football teaching to do.
