As an alleged victim comes forward, Baylor is playing a dangerous game by keeping Briles' assistants on staff
In the wake of the sexual assault scandal that rocked both the university and college football as a whole, Baylor made it clear it would dismiss university president Ken Starr, athletics director Ian McCaw and head coach Art Briles, but that would be it. Jim Grobe has been hired to shepherd the program through this season and Briles' assistants would keep their jobs. Whatever happens after the 2016 season concludes, happens.
In its subsequent statements, Baylor has declined to offer further details, instead inviting victims to come forward on their own terms.
One of them did -- and it looks predictably bad for the Bears.
Speaking to former ESPN reporter Joe Schad, a woman named Dolores Lozano said former Baylor running back Devin Chafin abused her on multiple occasions in the spring of 2014 -- and that Bears assistant coach Jeff Lebby knew about it:
Lozano states that after the first incident, she reported what happened to Chafin's mother and Lebby, who is still on Baylor's coaching staff. Lozano says she exchanged text messages with Lebby about the alleged incident, while trying to decide if she should go to Waco police.
So, you have a Baylor assistant that allegedly had first-hand knowledge of one of his players brutalizing a woman -- Lozano used the verbs "slapped," "kicked," "choked," and "slammed" to describe her interactions with Chafin (he denies the claim) -- and yet the player remained on the team for two more seasons without facing punishment.
Baylor released the following statement following Schad's report, essentially one paragraph of Charlie Brown's teacher speaking in written form.
(Update: Waco Police say Lozano did not cooperate with their investigation, and she later emailed Lebby asking him for a job in the athletics department. Make of that what you will.)
This is just one alleged victim, and there are still six months between now and the new staff taking place. That's six months for another victim to come forward, another person with knowledge of the situation to leak sensitive information, another Outside the Lines report to surface.
That's a long time for Baylor to sit and wait, hoping nothing happens.
