Art Briles is a big fan of the newest member of the College Football Playoff selection committee.
On Friday, Baylor's coach gave a ringing endorsement to Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt's appointment to the 13-person committee, which was announced earlier this month. Hocutt is replacing former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, who left to take a job with the NCAA in January.
"I think it's great. He fits what the committee needed," Briles told Fox Sports Southwest. "He's young, he's from the south, he understands the southern part of the United States and the Big 12."
Briles made headlines in the hours following Baylor's exclusion from the four-team playoff back in December, blasting the committee's makeup.
"The committee needs to be a little more regionalized with people that are associated with the south part of the United States," Briles said on Dec. 7. "To me, that's an issue. ... When Archie Manning went off, I said 'we're in trouble.'
Manning excused himself from the committee in October because of health issues and though Luck--the Big 12's representative on the committee--earned his law degree from Texas and played five seasons with the Houston Oilers, he was an Ohio native who claimed West Virginia as his alma mater.
"When I die, they're not going to bury me in Maryland. They're going to bury me in Texas," Briles said in December. "When those people die, they're not going to bring them down here and lay their body to rest. They're going to lay them to rest wherever they lived all their lives. And teams they follow. And teams they know."
Hocutt is a native of Sherman, Texas who played four seasons for Bill Snyder at Kansas State and has worked at Oklahoma, Ohio and Miami before becoming the athletic director at Texas Tech in 2011.
"Now with Archie coming back and Kirby, I think from a national perspective and certainly from a regional perspective, the committee is diverse where it might not have been last year," Briles said.
Baylor, the two-time defending Big 12 champion, begins spring practice on Tuesday. The Bears return 17 starters but will be looking to replace quarterback Bryce Petty.
Briles stopped short of naming junior Seth Russell the starter, but said he'll begin spring practice getting first-team reps ahead of Chris Johnson and incoming freshman Jarrett Stidham, one of the Bears' highest-rated recruits ever.
"We definitely have a lot of confidence in Seth," Briles said. "The thing I may just do is to get out there and see where his mind is on a daily basis. That's how you find (your starter). You can't have a true feeling of somebody until you have the opportunity to go through some experiences with them. We've had some experience with him and it's been real good."
Russell made his first career start last year against Northwestern State after Petty suffered two fractured transverse processes in the Bears' season opener.
He threw for 438 yards and five touchdowns on 16-of-25 passing. He finished the year with 804 yards and eight touchdowns with one interception on 26-of-43 passing.
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