** During his eight-year tenure Baylor coach Art Briles took in players with troubled pasts, thereby brightening the spotlight on missteps in his football program.
** Defensive end Shawn Oakman had been kicked off of Penn State’s football team but made
All-Big 12 at Baylor. He is currently accuse of a rape in Waco after he left school.
** Sam Ukwuachu transferred from Boise State to Baylor after being dismissed by the Broncos. He never played for the Bears but was convicted of sexual assault against a former Baylor soccer player last year. Chris Petersen, now the coach at Washington but then the coach at Boise State, claimed he called Briles to warn him about Ukwuachu. Briles took Ukwuachu in and denied that Petersen ever called him. (See August 24, 2015 post Ukwuachu Update: Briles vs. Petersen and
September 22, 2015 post “Lawlessness at Baylor“.)
** Other incidents of violence by football players came to light as well.
**Briles cared more about winning at the expense of academic progress and character development. Hopefully Baylor will hire someone of greater integrity as its next football coach and Briles will crawl back under a rock where he belongs.
