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Baylor, Art Briles sacrificed integrity to win on the football field

By Michael Taglienti

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Baylor University and their head football coach Art Briles have ignored their christian mission and traded their integrity for wins on the football field with their decision to bring Sam Ukwuachu on campus.

The oldest university in the state of Texas has now become a cliché. Baylor University and their head football coach Art Briles have compromised their integrity and the safety of the students on campus in the name of victory on the football field.

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The mission statement of Baylor University reads: “the University seeks to provide an environment that fosters spiritual maturity, strength of character and moral virtue.” It fails to mention the part where they provide shelter to criminals who can help them win football games.

Baylor football was a national laughingstock before Art Briles was hired as the head coach in 2008. The Bears had gone 3-9 the season before Briles was hired and had not had a winning record in 12 years.

After consecutive 4-8 campaigns, Briles got Baylor turned around and has led the Bears to five consecutive winning seasons. Unfortunately, to expedite the turnaround of the program, Briles has admitted some players that other schools would not take a chance on.

In doing so, Briles compromised the integrity of the school and football program and put students at Baylor at risk. Briles is not the only Baylor coach who has given a talented athlete a pass. The school has a history of lightly punishing the athletes who help its teams win.

Baylor men’s basketball player LaceDarius Dunn was arrested in 2010 for  aggravated assault after he punched his girlfriend and broke her jaw. He only missed the first three games of the season and went on to become the all-time leading scorer in Big 12 history.

So it should not come as a complete surprise that Baylor allowed Sam Ukwuachu to attend class and complete his degree despite his indictment for sexual assault. What is surprising, is that Ukwuachu was not even the first defensive linemen to be convicted  of rape during Briles tenure.  

Baylor defensive end Tevin Elliott was a standout player during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. He combined for 17 tackles for loss and eight sacks during those two seasons as Baylor went to back-to-back bowl games.

Elliot was also a serial rapist who was preying upon the female students at Baylor during those seasons. In 2012, Elliott was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and received the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. It is believed that Elliott sexually assaulted at least four Baylor students during his time at the school.

After Elliott’s convictions, Baylor and Briles should have gone out of their way to prevent a predator like that from getting on their campus again. Instead, they allowed Ukwuachu to transfer to Baylor during the summer of 2013.

Ukwuachu had a history of violence against women. A history that Washington head coach Chris Peterson claims he explained to Briles in detail. Briles denies that conversation ever took place, but even if it did not, after the Elliot conviction Baylor should have been the standard-bearer when it comes to investigating a troubled players background.

When Briles brought Ukwuachu to campus, he brought a predator to Waco. Ukwuachu had a documented history of being unable to control his anger. Every time he got angry, he lashed out towards women. This is what Briles brought onto campus to improve the Bears’ pass rush.

It only took a few months until Ukwuachu’s pattern of violence repeated itself. On an October night in 2013, Ukwuachu became upset at a friend. He did was he always did, he channeled his anger towards a woman. He sexually assaulted the female athlete whom he had driven to his apartment. She had only been in college for a couple of months. She was also a virgin.

Ukwuachu was indicted a year later but was allowed to remain in school and graduate. He was allowed to sit next to other co-eds in class like nothing had ever happened.

“In recent years we have joined university efforts to prevent campus violence against women and sexual assault, to actively support survivors of sexual assault with compassion and care, and to take action against perpetrators.” -statement from Baylor University

Baylor was quick to release a statement after Ukwuachu’s conviction stating the they supported the victims of sexual assault. This contradicts their actions in this case. According Texas Monthly, they refused to move Ukwuachu out of classes and tutoring sessions with the victim.

Instead they changed the victims schedule. The victim suffered a knee injury, had her scholarship reduced and eventually left the Baylor soccer program. That is not a glowing example of support.

Meanwhile Ukwuachu graduated from Baylor and was taking graduate school classes to become eligible to play football in 2015. The victim gets tossed aside while the perpetrator remains on scholarship and goes to graduate school.

One of the fundamental concepts of being a Christian is forgiveness and believing in personal redemption. However, that does not mean you allow violent predators on the campus of a Christian school. 

The actions of Briles and the Baylor administration should have every parent of a college-aged female questioning whether their daughter would be safe on the Waco campus. 

Briles is either at fault for putting students at risk because he did not fully investigate Ukwuachu’s background, or for simply looking the other way and ignoring the threat in a quest to win more football games. 

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