When last we heard from Southern Mississippi head coach Jay Hopson, it was in the form of an impassioned defense of why Jesus wanted him to hire Art Briles. This was after saner heads had prevailed, so you may wonder why Hopson had chosen this particular hill to die on.
Well, it turns out he’s been on that hill before.
A new report by The Athletic brings into question Southern Miss football coach Jay Hopson’s track record of giving second chances to both players and coaches with troubled pasts.
Thursday’s report comes a day after Hopson was denied the opportunity by USM administration to hire former Baylor coach Art Briles, who has been out of a college coaching job since he was fired by Baylor in May of 2016 amid a probe into allegations of sexual assault by his players.
The Athletic’s report is centered around Charles West, a junior college football player who was previously accused of raping two women at knife-point in separate incidents in 2015.
The Athletic cites two unidentified sources saying that the USM football program signed West in January and Hopson did not inform athletic department officials of previous charges against the player. The accusations were also not included on his admissions application. According to the report, West planned to enroll last month for the spring semester.
USM officials were not aware of the accusations against West until an athletic department employee came across a Dallas Morning News article on the rape allegations, according to The Athletic. He is not a student at the school.
A real peach, this guy is. Nothing like doubling down; after all, it’s not as if the school did much the first time around. I wonder what’s next. Too bad Sandusky’s still in prison, I guess.