Former Baylor DC Phil Bennett sounds off

This is a hell of an interview.

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Continues the theme that Baylor passed the buck onto the football team.

Biggest thing to me is that Baylor didn’t have a Title IX Coordinator before any of this.

Dude is full of beans. Three quotes I think sum up his self serving positions which are a mixture of denial and deflection.

‘What would you do different?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. Go to the police?’ (Coogcheese note: Wouldn’t have done any good
they were in on it too.)

“Never at any point did I think this program was out of control”

“I just felt the system was a failure to help anybody, us or the victims.”

Because he has no regard for the women who were assaulted.

Fact is, Briles could recruit offense. He could not recruit defense. So he took a bunch of risky character bets to shore up the defense, and it blew up in his face. As DC, Bennett presided over that gang of thugs.

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You should show the context. I thought it was what he was saying about himself.

What do you think was the final breaking point that you believe led to Briles being fired?

“Probably the Shawn Oakman incident. If you look at the timing of it (Oakman was arrested for allegedly sexual assaulting a woman in April 2016). I do think that was it. It was all just too much. He wasn’t even with us at that point.”

Should Art have done more?

“Art had done right, and it started to affect him. He would say to me, ‘I could have done more.’ I would say, ‘What would you do different?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. Go to the police?’ We did not have Title IX until after all of this stuff.”

This interview is wow. Thank you Lawdog. I really think that the admin at Baylor were playing eagle point politics. They probably kept Art and staff in the dark. The admin tried to manage this because of revenue that was coming in and it blew up.

Yes, the first quote, which you are commenting on, was Bennett’s recollection of what Briles said. The other two are his quotes
his personal opinions. ‘It wasn’t out of control’
effen-A it was
and ‘the system failed’ him.

I was originally going to only post the 2nd and 3rd lines. But thought the idea that he remembered talking about how they should have called the cops in hindsight added to it. All the bad crap happened on his watch, by players he recruited and directly coached with daily interaction. He knew everything and now he’s playing the victim. GMAFB.

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So who’s playing “victim” for the 95% of the assaults that weren’t athlete related? Board of Regent’s? University President? Title IX office? No one playing victim, just lots of people blindly levying blame; hoping to deflect attention to the huge Baylor problem. Less than a year after crucifying Briles and the football staff, the Baylor administration writes an open letter stating they had ZERO evidence that Briles had 1)ever been told by an individual they had been victim of a sexual assault 2) discouraged anyone from reporting a sexual assault to law enforcement or the University 3) ever played an athlete that had been been found guilty of sexual assault.
There was a lot of “bad crap” that happened at Baylor while Art Briles was there; to say it all happened under his or his staff’s watch and they knew everything that was going on is not supported facts and that’s why Baylor did a low key about face on the blame game.
I found it interesting that Pepper Hamilton would not allow the interviews to be recorded or counsel be present with the people being interviewed. What a sham.

I agree with you 78CoogCapt. You add what the ex-AD had to say and the reports of how THE POLICE would lead the victims to NOT file charges. This is a BOR and a TOWN problem. Who was around when the basketball player was killed. This is not trying to play victim. More of hindsight thinking after something has been done and you look back at your actions and ask what did I miss, should have done more. I personally still think the Coaches were set up to be the fall guys and after reading what the ex-AD had to say only confirmed my suspensions. You can blame coaches if you want to for bringing them in but I believe in giving 2nd chances and if the players blow it I don’t blame the Coaches for that persons actions. That whole town seems corrupt and I would never let my Kids go there.

Bingo

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Blaming the school is such a cop out. Does the school have a problem? Yes. Did the football program have a problem? Yes. So, is it the school or football program that is to blame? Yes.

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Bennett is scum. I haven’t read the interview and won’t
he is a liar from the word go. Especially when it comes to dealing with recruits (second hand knowledge from conversations with families that have been subject to his lies). He is abusive to officials (first hand knowledge). He was the perfect coach for baylor.

Here is the thing, if Baylor football players committed 5% of the sexual assaults but make up 1% of the male student population (which they do), it’s a football problem. If a study came out that over a 5 year period, seat belt malfunctions resulted in 5 times more deaths per accident in Toyotas than all other manufacturers, the first thing you would expect is some sort of investigation of Toyota to see if there was any evidence they knew about it and covered it up.

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So the auto industry crucifies Toyota and turns a blind eye to the other 95% of deaths. Sounds plausible

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