Former Baylor Bears head coach Art Briles lands job in Italy

More than two years after he was fired as head coach at Baylor, Art Briles will return to the sidelines in Italy.

Briles, who was dismissed in June 2016 in the midst of the university's sexual assault scandal, will coach an American football team based in Florence, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Thursday.

It will mark the first coaching job for Briles since his termination at Baylor in a scandal that caused university president Ken Starr and athletic director Ian McCaw to also lose their jobs.

Briles will coach the Guelfi Firenze American Football team, which will compete in an adult league starting in March.

An official announcement was expected later Thursday, according to the newspaper.

The firing of Briles at Baylor was recommended by the university regents, who held him responsible for a lack of accountability for athlete misconduct, including sexual assault allegations.

In a joint statement issued by Briles and Baylor after his dismissal, both sides acknowledged "serious shortcomings in the response to reports of sexual violence by some student-athletes, including deficiencies in university processes and the delegation of disciplinary responsibilities with the football program."

Briles told the Star-Telegram via a phone interview on Thursday that he never had the opportunity to rectify the many issues of the scandal.

"I would have done more if I had known more," Briles said. "When these allegations came out, we found out at the same time you did. I had a meeting with the 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 was hired as an offensive coordinator by Hamilton of the Canadian Football League in August 2017, only to be dismissed by the club hours later. He is expected to head overseas in October to begin preparations for the European season.

"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 said. "[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."