Baylor to hire Houston's Briles as new head coach

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Houston coach Art Briles has been chosen as Baylor's new football coach, and will be introduced Wednesday evening.

Baylor spokesman Nick Joos said the school had called a news conference later in the day to "name the school's new football coach."

Briles has led Houston to four bowls in his five seasons. He was offered the job after meeting with Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw on Tuesday in Dallas.

Briles replaces Guy Morriss, who was fired Nov. 19 after five seasons. Morriss was fired after the Bears completed their 12th straight losing season with their 12th consecutive Big 12 loss.

Houston (8-4) has already accepted an invitation to play in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 28 in Houston against an undetermined opponent. The Cougars won the Conference USA title last season.

Briles is 34-28 in five seasons at Houston with only one losing season. Before his arrival, the Cougars had only two winning seasons in the previous 12 years.

Before going to Houston, where he was a four-year letterman as a receiver and played in the 1976 Cotton Bowl, Briles spent three seasons as running backs coach at Texas Tech. His previous head coaching job had been at Stephenville High School, where in 12 seasons he was 136-29-2 and won four Texas state championships.

Morriss was 18-40 the past five seasons at Baylor.

The leading candidate initially was Mike Singletary. But the Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker and Baylor icon took his name out of consideration after a lengthy meeting with McCaw last week in California.

Information from ESPN's Joe Schad and The Associated Press was used in this report.

Source: ESPN.com