Ugh. I get the whole innocent until proven guilty bit (and, to be fair, Shawn Oakman was found not guilty) but Ken Starr raising money for a Baylor athlete’s defense fund after presiding over the school’s lack of support for sexual assault and Title IX-related accusations (which, to be fair again, cost Starr his presidency there) isn’t a good look. At all.
I’ve got one question after reading this story about Art Briles’ ill-fated interview process at Southern Mississippi.
Southern Mississippi supporters reacted swiftly after reports emerged that the school was interviewing former Baylor football coach Art Briles for its vacant offensive coordinator position.
In emails to the school’s administration and athletic officials, they lobbied against hiring Briles because of his role in a sexual-assault scandal that led to his firing at Baylor. Some threatened to revoke financial support, either through season tickets or donations.
They needn’t have worried.
Southern Mississippi’s interim athletic director had decided against the hire even before Briles set foot on campus for an interview on Monday, Feb. 4. In an email obtained by USA TODAY through a public-records request, Jeff Mitchell instructed head coach Jay Hopson early on Feb. 3 to “go in another direction” for that position.
Saying that he was following up on “our earlier communication both in person on Friday and via text this morning,” Mitchell also wrote that he “can’t get to a place to support” hiring Briles. [Emphasis added.]
After openly defying his AD and embarrassing the school in the process, how is Jay Hopson still gainfully employed as Southern Miss’ head coach?
In retrospect, Coach, maybe texting a German player “I’m your new Hitler” wasn’t the smartest approach to take.
Filed under General Idiocy
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.
Filed under Crime and Punishment, General Idiocy
Good mornin’.
In response to the NCAA’s finding that three of its players tested positive for a banned substance called ostarine, Clemson is currently investigating Epsom salt as a possible cause.
That puts me in mind of the old joke about how Clemson didn’t have ice water because the kid who knew the recipe graduated.
Filed under Clemson: Auburn With A Lake, General Idiocy
