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Briles sustains family's
good name long after tragedy
FINAL ROUNDUP OF C-USA BOWLS New Orleans Bowl
[Preview]
Tuesday, December 20
Southern Miss 31, Arkansas State 19
Cajun Stadium, Lafayette, LA
Payout Per Team: $750,000
Time: 8 PM; TV: ESPN
GMAC Bowl [Preview]
Wednesday, December 21
Toledo 45, Texas-El Paso 13
Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, AL
Payout Per Team: $750,000
Time: 8 PM; TV: ESPN
Fort Worth Bowl [Preview]
Friday, December 23
Kansas 42, Houston 13
Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, TX
Payout Per Team: $750,000
Time: 8 PM; TV: ESPN
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl [Preview]
Saturday, December 24
Nevada 49, Central Florida 48 (OT)
Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI
Payout Per Team: $750,000
Time: 8:30 PM; TV: ESPN
Motor City Bowl [Preview]
Monday, December 26
Memphis
38, Akron 31
Ford Field, Detroit, MI
Payout Per Team: $750,000
Time: 4 PM; TV: ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl [Preview]
Saturday, December 31
Tulsa
31, Fresno State 24
Liberty Bowl Stadium, Memphis, TN
Payout Per Team: $1,500,000
Time: 1 PM; TV: ESPN
View schedule and final results of all bowl games involving C-USA teams... |
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By CHRIS DUNCAN
AP Sports Writer
Houston coach Art Briles
slipped into a glassy-eyed trance as he recalled the day that changed
his life forever.
He rattled off the date
his parents and aunt died in a car crash — Oct. 16, 1976 — and his voice
turned hollow as he talked about the aftermath and how he persevered.
"I pulled up and pushed
forward, but it's still with me every second," said Briles, who will
lead Houston (6-5) against Kansas (6-5) in Friday's Fort Worth Bowl.
The game ties together
what Briles has accomplished with what he's overcome. The Cougars will
play their second bowl in his three seasons about an hour's drive from
where the accident occurred, near Newcastle in north-central Texas.
If it had never happened,
Briles thinks he still would've become a successful coach and raised the
same three children, including son Kendal, who will play his final game
for his father Friday.
But he also knows he would
be a different person.
"I probably understand the
importance of the people close to you better than maybe I would have,"
he said. "You need people in your life, people who care about you and
love you. I think that's made me a more insightful coach."
Back then, Briles was a
20-year-old split end at the school he now coaches. He wasn't sure he
would ever get over the grief.
The Cougars were playing
Southern Methodist at the Cotton Bowl that day, and Dennis and Wanda
Briles and Art's aunt, Elsie, were driving to see the game from the tiny
West Texas town of Rule, where Briles grew up.
His parents had been to
many of his games and at some point during all of them, Art would spot
them in the crowd.
Not this time.
"I had an intuition
something wasn't right," Briles said. "Usually, you always know where
the parents sit. My mother would always wave at me, but I didn't see her
that day."
The Cougars won 29-6, and
Houston coach Bill Yeoman delivered the bad news to Briles afterward.
"That was pretty
traumatic," Briles said.
Briles went home for a
week to mourn with his older brother, Eddie, then returned to school. He
made it to the end of the spring semester, then quit and retreated to
Rule, emotionally drained.
"I did leave because of
that," Briles said. "I went through a six-month spell after it happened
where I had to get myself together and decide whether I would fight or
falter."
After a month of
soul-searching at home, Briles enrolled at Texas Tech. He graduated in
1979 and went on to earn a master's degree in education at Abilene
Christian.
He hopes he made his
parents proud.
"I just had the
realization that not anything is going to happen unless you make it
happen," he said. "You've got to pick a road to go down, and I chose one
where I tried to build a positive legacy for my family's name. I became
determined to honor them in the best way I could."
Briles was an all-state
quarterback for his father in Rule and knew coaching was in his blood.
He bounced around a few high school jobs in the 1980s before finding his
niche as the head coach at Stephenville.
The Yellowjackets won four
championships in Briles' 12 seasons. In 1998, the team amassed a
national-record 8,650 yards while running Briles' wide-open passing
attack.
Briles spent three seasons
at Texas Tech, guiding one of the nation's most prolific offenses, then
returned to Houston for the head coaching job Kendal knew his father
coveted.
"He never really talked to
me about his career pursuits, but I know he has always had a lot of love
and pride for this university," said Kendal Briles, who transferred from
Texas to play for his father. "He's really put his life into doing
what's best and right for this program."
A victory over Kansas will
give the Cougars their second winning season in three years, the first
time that's happened at Houston in more than a decade.
At some point, after the
game, Briles said he'll share a moment with his son and reflect on their
three seasons together. He'll think of his parents, too.
"Ever since Oct. 16, 1976,
I've had to get myself up in the morning. It's a deal that's really made
me thankful for friends, players and for family," he said. "I'm extra
sensitive now to people who care about people and I've become pretty
determined to excel, to be able to stand on my own two feet and do a
worthy job.
"That's all any of us
have."
02/23/07 10:43 AM
©2005 The Associated Press. All
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