“We are all trying to do due diligence.”

For some unknown reason, people associated with Baylor football during the Briles era keep opening their mouth in the deluded belief that it will make things better.  Pro tip:  it doesn’t.

Here’s what former defensive coordinator Phil Bennett had to say about Sam Ukwuachu, a transfer student who was charged with two counts of sexual assault of a Baylor student athlete.  (He played after being indicted.)

Included in that TM report was an anecdote that Bennett told a group of Baylor fans in a June ‘15 gathering for the Baylor Sports Network that Ukwuachu was expected to play that fall. At the time, Ukwuachu was scheduled to stand trial for allegedly raping a member of the Baylor women’s soccer team.

Why did you make that comment?

“It was at Joe T. Garcia’s (in Fort Worth). I was asked about it. I never mentioned it until I was asked. I would do a rundown of the defensive players (for the audience). I would say, ‘At left defensive end, we have so and so.’ I never said his name. Someone asked me, ‘What about Sam?’ I said, ‘We expect him back.’ We didn’t go into personnel or anything. He had just been cleared by our judicial affairs, who said, ‘We think this is going to be cleared.’ “

Who told you he would be clear?

“Sam told me. He took out a $5,000 loan to pay for his own lie detector test. And (the staff) was told that he gave (Baylor chief judicial officer) Bethany McCraw all the facts. We were told he would be clear. How do you end up getting convicted and six months’ probation?”

“Gee, dumbass, maybe next time you don’t take an accused player at his word without doing your own due diligence” would seem to be the obvious retort here, but Bennett’s got a response for that, too.

How did the staff handle it when Texas Monthly published the story about Ukwuachu?

“We were committed and we knew more about the situation than anybody else. Art would say, ‘(athletic director Ian McCaw) says, “Stick with due process ‘til it’s done.” ’ (Ukwuachu’s) roommate was there (during the alleged attack). And, at the same time, you said it yourself: How do you know? You can’t live with that if you’re wrong. It was not our job to do it, and we were going on what we were told.

“If we had had (Title IX coordinator) Patty Crawford (who was hired in November ‘14) in place, this all would have been out of our hands and they would have handled it. Art would have survived. We all would have survived. I go back to Sam’s deal; the sensationalism and the lies that he played. He never played. He never set foot in the weight room or the locker room. I’ve said this from the get-go: This was a systematic problem. Baylor never wanted Title IX in the first place.”

The idea that the same “Sam told me” guy also claims that he know more about the situation than anybody else beggars belief.  Well, almost as much as this:

Absolutely. Should you and your staff have known?

“(Then Boise State coach) Chris Petersen called us. Said he was homesick (Ukwuachu is from Pearland). We didn’t call them. They called us. Boise State didn’t know anything about his past until it came out in trial that he hit (his girlfriend). (Media reports) said we took him knowing that, which was not true. Boise State recommended and released him in good standing.”

If he was homesick, as Coach Briles said Coach Petersen told him, why did he consider transferring to Florida, as was reported by Sports Illustrated?

“I don’t know. Chris said that Sam had a few issues and that he was moody. Which he is.”

Quite the jump from moody to multiple counts of sexual assault, eh?

Then again, that’s Baylor.