Baylor: The Day Heads Rolled and Waco Stood Still
Related Story: How the Ukwuachu Trial Affects Art Briles
In a revealing, shocking, and unprecedented week in college football, the landscape has forever been changed following the initial report that rapes and sexual assaults were allegedly swept under the rug by Baylor’s coaching staff has officially sunk the Baylor football program to a new low.
An independent investigation, brought on by the university, was led by attorney Pepper Hamilton. Hamilton’s findings were both thorough and shocking. A small portion was posted to Twitter by Bleacher Report’s Adam Kramer.
That about does it. pic.twitter.com/N0W8rtDUir
— Adam Kramer (@KegsnEggs) May 26, 2016
Not just the football program will be affected, the whole school will be affected. Attendance may slip, applicants are sure to fall, and parents will have to be reconsidering their kids going to Baylor in light of these horrifying discoveries. Revenue is sure to fall, boosters donations will fall, and especially the football program will fall to depths it hasn’t seen since the pre-Art Briles era.
Baylor president, Ken Starr, who was made famous for going after Bill Clinton in the Monicagate scandal has been targeted for not taking action in this. He has since been reassigned from the role of president to chancellor and professor at Baylor’s law school, some demotion. It’s impressive he still has a job, where was he in all of this? Where was the figure whose job it is to help make and keep his campus safe for his students?
This brought the question have we reached the point where winning and making money outweighs morality, and keeping the students enrolled in your school safe? Starr has declined an uncountable number of interviews since the OTL report came out.
Ken Starr is not the main man to blame in this however, the coaching staff deserves the most blowback for this. Ex-head coach Art Briles was always a man who believed in redemption, who always believed in giving a player a second chance. Prime example is Shawn Oakman, the freakish defensive end who was kicked out of Penn State for stealing and violating school policy. Briles scooped him up.
A man who believed in second chances was ultimately defeated by them. Under his watch heinous acts were slid under he rug on his watch, and no matter how many 10-3, 11-2 seasons you have had, there is no forgiving this. Baylor made a difficult decision to fire the man who brought the football program up from the bottom of the Big 12, but it was the right one.
Now the questions stack up, where do they go now? Who will replace Baylor’s version of (a way less successful) Bear Bryant? They have opted to name defensive coordinator, Phil Bennett, their interim head coach until they find their new guy. But as of right now it might not even be worth taking the job in Waco.
A dark cloud will continue to be cast over a once rising program for years to come because of an unprecedented case of negligence. The next coach to take this job will be subject to constant scrutiny from the school and board to discipline even the smallest infractions from here on out.
This is an event so monumental it has now set the ultimate precedent for college football discipline. No matter how much you have done, no matter how much money you have made the school, no matter how many Heisman winners you coach, no matter the new stadium you may as well have built, you are not safe from the axe if you let discipline spiral out of control.
Baylor Bears
The next day everyone woke up with the notifications on their phone that Ole Miss decided to self impose violations detrimental to 13 football violations, 11 of which occurred under Hugh Freeze. Then people started to link these two events together, and that can’t happen. These two cases have nothing in common, and do not need to be linked together.
From now on, this will be that case everyone refers to. Whenever someone messes up at a school the first negative reference point that will come to mind is Baylor University. More actions will be taken against players because coaches now know the cost for covering up their crimes.
To reiterate, the precedent has been set that nobody is safe, no matter what you have done for your school. Art Briles has officially reached the untouchable status, nobody can hire a good coach without receiving monumental blowback.
Baylor’s odds to make the playoffs were 20/1 before the firing of Art Briles, giving them the seventh best odds to make it. They returned Seth Russell, a Heisman candidate before injuring a disc in his neck midway through the season, which made them a hot playoff pick, as well as explosive receiver K.D. Cannon.
Who knows where they will fall now that man who made the wheel turn is gone. With Briles, and a large amount of the offensive assistants, gone what will happen to a high-powered machine that once was?
Now the students, fans, and people of Waco can only ask has the title window closed? Phil Bennett will take over after his defense gave up 27.5 points per game, and ranked 56th nationally, but nobody believes that is the long-term solution.
Recruiting at the school has begun to collapse since Briles was fired. So far four signees from the 2016 class have asked if they can be released from their National Letters of Intent, including the top guard in the class, Patrick Hudson. Six recruits have decommitted since Thursday including an ESPN 300 receiver, and safety who announced their decisions yesterday via twitter.
May 27, 2016 will always be remembered in the sports world as the day a pioneer of the game was betrayed by his own tactics, and the downfall of a rising program came in one of the most shocking turn of events. A man who believed in “mavericks”, second chances, and ran a “non-judgmental program” ultimately had it led to his and Baylor’s downfall. That day will be remembered as the day Waco stood still.