Just before 6 p.m. on Monday evening, close to two dozen Baylor assistants, staffers and former players tweeted a KWTX news story tagged with a #TRUTHDONTLIE hashtag.
The story in question refers to the dismissal of Baylor player Jeremy Faulk, who the university's administration announced was dismissed by acting head coach Jim Grobe. Grobe called KWTX to say it was actually the university, not him, that dismissed Faulk.
Weary of being scapegoated by the university, the football staff simultaneously tweeted the hashtag as a sign of solidarity and protest.
A day later, according to a report from KWTX, Baylor will not take any action against the staff standing up against the university and will allow the tweets to stand. From the report:
Athletic Director Mack Rhoades met privately with at least one coach late in the evening, and indicated nothing would happen to the staffers who sent tweets, sources said.
He also encouraged the coaches to focus on the season.
As we pointed out last night, the #TRUTHDONTLIE hashtag was a common one under Art Briles, seen as recently as a week before the Baylor board fired him for his role in the school's ongoing sexual assault scandal.
Last night's showing was not the first time since the Briles firing the remaining coaches have nodded in their former head coach's direction. Coaches have been asked to stop wearing "CAB" shirts in official Baylor capacity, Briles was in the stands for the Bears' visit to Rice, and former player Shawn Oakman -- himself accused of sexual assault -- was allowed in the locker room following a game earlier this season.
The Baylor staff has always been fiercely loyal to Briles and famously insular. That was a strength as the staff roused the Bears from its historic depths to win back-to-back Big 12 championships and, clearly, it will not change as the ship goes down.
At 5-0 with seven games left in the regular season, it's clear Rhoades' decision to allow the tweets to stand signals that he wants to ride the season out as successfully as possible before a new staff comes in this winter.