From a football standpoint, Kendal Briles would be a terrific hire. I watch a lot of Big 12 football, and the Briles system when it gets rolling is truly something to behold. I am very interested in seeing how it would do in the SEC.
The off the field picture is a lot more complicated. Let me try to clear up some confusion about what happened with Baylor and what potential role Kendal Briles may have had in it.
Baylor commissioned an independent law firm to investigate its compliance with Title IX, the Pepper Hamilton Report. The PHR issued a findings of fact, that is at the link. The most relevant part is at page 10:
https://www.baylor.edu/thefacts/doc.php/266596.pdf
The report found a culture of putting football above the rules, resulting in lots of sexual assaults and violence against women by the football players. Kendal Briles was not named specifically in the report (neither was anyone else on the football staff, including father Art Briles), but the report repeatedly references the "football coaches" or "football staff" in a collective way. Art Briles and the University President Ken Starr were both fired over the findings of the report, and the AD resigned. Kendal, the offensive coordinator and son of the head coach, may have been oblivious to all of this conduct within the program, and may not have been one of multiple coaches who participated in the coverup, but it seems extremely improbable that he had no knowledge whatsoever. Note that the PHR was a private investigation, not a criminal investigation by a local, state, or federal government agency.
The PHR speaks in generalities and doesn't get into citing specific incidents, so what is publicly known about the allegations mostly comes from newspaper stories, police reports, and the many Title IX lawsuits that were subsequently filed. It is worth noting that allegations in a complaint are just that - allegations, made by the person filing the suit, but the attorney signing the complaint has to have a good faith belief that they are true or he/she can get sanctioned. These are civil suits, again, not criminal prosecutions. These Waco Tribune stories have a pretty good recap of the lawsuits that were filed:
Baylor, alleged gang rape victim reach settlement in Title IX suit
Baylor settles with former student who accused football players of gang rape
To be clear, Kendal Briles wasn't named as a defendant in these lawsuits, but that may simply be because as a Baylor employee, the University is liable for his acts and omissions regardless of whether he is named as a defendant, and Baylor is the deep pocket that the victims will go after. They don't need a specific coach to be named to get their recovery from Baylor, and like Tennessee did last year with its Title IX lawsuits, nearly all of these lawsuits were settled by Baylor, who didn't want the additional negative publicity they would get from a bunch of depositions being taken, much less a trial.
Several Baylor football players were convicted individually of sex crimes by state authorities. No football coaches were criminally charged:
Baylor University sexual assault scandal - Wikipedia
So what we know is that an independent commission found rampant disregard for the safety of women on campus at Baylor, and that the football staff, of which Kendal Briles was a part, tried to subvert and cover up efforts to hold athletes accountable for their misconduct. We know that rape was a large part of that misconduct, and several players were convicted of sex crimes. Art Briles and Ken Starr took the public fall for it as captains of the ship, and also based on personal knowledge, at least on Art's part, of some specific incidents of conduct. Art Briles will likely never coach again.
People are correct when they say that Kendal has never been convicted of anything, nor has he personally paid any civil settlement. However Baylor has paid millions upon millions of dollars to settle the lawsuits, and those settlements would include any claims that could have been brought by the plaintiffs against Kendal or any other individual coach. Baylor's football program had numerous players transfer, and they went 1-11 two years ago recovering from this. In October of this year, they received a notice of allegations from the NCAA, and severe penalties are expected to be issued next year:
Baylor receives notice of allegations from NCAA for lack of institutional control
All of the above will get thrown out and rehashed by the national media members who are looking to settle a score from last year against us, in a way that they don't care about with FAU or Houston. Their argument will be Greg Schiano didn't rape any kids, and Kendal Briles didn't rape any women, but there is witness testimony against the former, and circumstantial evidence against the latter, that both knew of rapes going on in their football program and they did nothing about it. So by rioting against one, and celebrating the other, we are the insincere hypocritical rubes that they said we were.
Everyone can make their own decision about whether Briles is worth it, I'm just trying to lay out the facts as they are publicly available, and clear up some misconceptions I keep seeing discussed.
