He said, he said.

My first reaction to the whole Art Briles – Chris Peterson dust up about what the former was told about Sam Ukwuachu in the process of Baylor deciding to admit him was the Briles had made a mistake dragging Peterson into the mess.  But the more I think about it, the more I think it may be a rather clever attempt at deflection.  Instead of focusing on what happened once Ukwuachu arrived in Waco, everyone is parsing the words of the two coaches.

Even so, when you get down to what everyone knew, it’s still not so great for Baylor as this Texas Monthly follow up summarizes in its conclusion:

While we don’t know exactly what was said between Briles and Petersen, there is evidence that Petersen knew the extent of Ukwuachu’s actions in May 2013 and that he took it seriously enough at the time to immediately dismiss Ukwuachu from the team. We also know that the discipline enforced by Petersen wasn’t a question asked by Baylor on the form distributed to media on Friday evening. There are a number of questions remaining, but the nature of Sam Ukwuachu’s final days at Boise State—and who knew the details—is not among them.

In other words, Peterson may have chosen his words carefully, while Briles and Baylor were equally careful in choosing not to read between the lines.  I expect there’s more to come on that front, and it probably won’t be pretty.