South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati wasn’t navigating unfamiliar territory when the Gamecocks moved to hire Kendal Briles as their new offensive coordinator. In fact, Donati had already gone through a nearly identical vetting process years earlier, which helped smooth the way for Briles’ introduction on Friday.
Four years ago, Donati was serving as the athletic director at TCU, fresh off the Horned Frogs’ appearance in the national championship game. At the time, head coach Sonny Dykes was considering Briles for the same role — offensive coordinator — a move that came with complications.
For one, Briles had spent close to a decade at Baylor, working under his father, Art Briles. Given the intense rivalry between Baylor and TCU, the optics alone were sensitive. Donati likened it to a hypothetical scenario closer to home.
“To bring it over someone from Baylor to TCU,” Donati said Friday after Briles’ introductory press conference, “that’s also another vetting thing, just as we would here if it was Clemson to South Carolina.”
Beyond rivalry concerns, there was a far more serious backdrop. The Briles name became deeply controversial following the sexual assault scandal that engulfed Baylor athletics, ultimately costing Art Briles and several others their positions. In 2018, Baylor settled a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Art Briles for $15 million.
A 2016 Title IX lawsuit alleged the Baylor football program fostered an environment that enabled sexual predators. Another lawsuit claimed that 52 women had been raped by Baylor football players.
Although Kendal Briles was never charged with any wrongdoing, his name surfaced in allegations tied to recruiting behavior.
In 2018, Houston Chronicle reporter Jenny Dial Creech wrote that “three players from the Houston area… say that when Kendal recruited them he made mention of female students at the university being very available to football players.”
Additionally, one Title IX lawsuit accused Briles of sending a text message to a Dallas-area recruit that read: “Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at BAYLOR and they LOVE football players.”
Donati said those matters were thoroughly examined before Briles was hired — both at TCU and again at South Carolina.
“Everybody that we’ve talked to in the process about Kendal Briles’ family, heard nothing but tremendous things,” Donati said. “It’s not lost on any of us what happened to Baylor years ago, but we have plenty of confidence that there was absolutely nothing there that we need to be concerned about. So we went through that whole process at TCU and there were no red flags.”
Neither Shane Beamer nor Briles addressed the subject publicly during Friday’s press conference, but Beamer told the Post and Courier earlier in the week that he was “completely” satisfied with South Carolina’s vetting of Briles.
When asked directly whether the accusations mattered to him, Donati didn’t hesitate.
“Of course it matters,” he said. “But you talk to plenty of people. We had nothing but positive responses there (from) people who worked at Baylor, works at Baylor now (and they) said wonderful things about Kendal.”
It’s also notable that Baylor retained Kendal Briles following his father’s dismissal, keeping him on staff as offensive coordinator during the 2016 season.
Since then, Briles has continued his coaching career across the country, with stops at FAU (2017), Houston (2018), Florida State (2019), Arkansas (2020–22), and TCU (2023–25) — a journey that has now led him to South Carolina, where he takes over the Gamecocks’ offense.
