Two years ago Boise State defensive end Sam Ukwuachu announced he was transferring to Baylor. "It's a done deal, and I'm reporting June 3," Ukwuachu explained to Sic’emSports.com. "Baylor was my best option. It's close to home. It's a good program. (Boise St. coach Chris Petersen) really helped me to [decide] where I wanted to go. Things just didn't work out up there."
A Texas native, Ukwuachu was a freshman All-American for the Broncos in 2012 but had been dismissed from the Boise State program two weeks earlier for an unspecified violation of team rules.
On Thursday, Ukwuachu was found guilty of sexual assault of a then-Baylor soccer player in 2013. The story of Ukwuachu and his violent past includes the disturbing details about how a former girlfriend at Boise State testified that Ukwuachu punched her in the head several times, choked her and physically restrained her from leaving.
On Friday, Baylor coach Art Briles was asked about what he knew of Ukwuachu’s past. Briles said he spoke with then-Boise State coach Chris Petersen but was not informed of any prior violent incidents before he accepted Ukwuachu's transfer to Baylor:
"No mention of anything beyond Sam being depressed and needing to come home," Briles said. "So that was our information. And that's what you go by."
On Friday morning, Petersen provided a statement to FOX Sports refuting Briles' comments:
"After Sam Ukwuachu was dismissed from the Boise State football program and expressed an interest in transferring to Baylor, I initiated a call with coach Art Briles. In that conversation, I thoroughly apprised Coach Briles of the circumstances surrounding Sam's disciplinary record and dismissal."
Some have tried to make the case that what Briles said Friday morning and what Petersen said in his statement can both be true. Perhaps. But keep in mind the language Petersen chose to use in response to Briles' comments, and did so in light of Sam Ukwuachu’s legal case -- "I thoroughly apprised Coach Briles of the circumstances surrounding Sam's disciplinary record and dismissal."That sure makes it sound like Petersen was privy to some of the disturbing details of Ukwuachu’s behavior in Boise. After all, coaches don’t just dismiss a Freshman All-American for "being depressed and needing to come home."
Also, in this week’s Texas Monthly piece that ran only titled "Baylor’s Silence" it includes the following: "In documents from May 2013 obtained by Texas Monthly, Marc Paul, the assistant athletics director at Boise State University, recounts advising to Ukwuachu’s then-girlfriend in Boise that she stay away from the house the two shared for several nights, after he put his fist through a window while drunk. Paul also makes plans for how to get police protection for the couple’s other housemate, who received threatening text messages from Ukwuachu.
Paul is Boise State’s’ head athletic trainer. Would Petersen not have been told any of this by a guy who, by the nature of his role with the program, provides daily medical updates to coaches? Also, as one head coach at a Power 5 program explained to me on Friday, in cases where there is a vague reason given publicly for a player’s dismissal, when another programs considers whether to take that player as a transfer, "head coaches talk to head coaches, assistants talk to other assistants and trainers talk to trainers."
The subject of taking a transfer with major baggage in college football is not new, but when it comes to taking on guys who get booted from a team for these “unspecified" rules violations, I wondered how thorough some of these football programs are willing to be. I spoke to seven coaches Friday (five of them head coaches) and asked how they handle such situations; all seven said you must find out what the player has been in trouble for.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...convicted-player-ukwuachu-violent-past-082115
A Texas native, Ukwuachu was a freshman All-American for the Broncos in 2012 but had been dismissed from the Boise State program two weeks earlier for an unspecified violation of team rules.
On Thursday, Ukwuachu was found guilty of sexual assault of a then-Baylor soccer player in 2013. The story of Ukwuachu and his violent past includes the disturbing details about how a former girlfriend at Boise State testified that Ukwuachu punched her in the head several times, choked her and physically restrained her from leaving.
On Friday, Baylor coach Art Briles was asked about what he knew of Ukwuachu’s past. Briles said he spoke with then-Boise State coach Chris Petersen but was not informed of any prior violent incidents before he accepted Ukwuachu's transfer to Baylor:
"No mention of anything beyond Sam being depressed and needing to come home," Briles said. "So that was our information. And that's what you go by."
On Friday morning, Petersen provided a statement to FOX Sports refuting Briles' comments:
"After Sam Ukwuachu was dismissed from the Boise State football program and expressed an interest in transferring to Baylor, I initiated a call with coach Art Briles. In that conversation, I thoroughly apprised Coach Briles of the circumstances surrounding Sam's disciplinary record and dismissal."
Some have tried to make the case that what Briles said Friday morning and what Petersen said in his statement can both be true. Perhaps. But keep in mind the language Petersen chose to use in response to Briles' comments, and did so in light of Sam Ukwuachu’s legal case -- "I thoroughly apprised Coach Briles of the circumstances surrounding Sam's disciplinary record and dismissal."That sure makes it sound like Petersen was privy to some of the disturbing details of Ukwuachu’s behavior in Boise. After all, coaches don’t just dismiss a Freshman All-American for "being depressed and needing to come home."
Also, in this week’s Texas Monthly piece that ran only titled "Baylor’s Silence" it includes the following: "In documents from May 2013 obtained by Texas Monthly, Marc Paul, the assistant athletics director at Boise State University, recounts advising to Ukwuachu’s then-girlfriend in Boise that she stay away from the house the two shared for several nights, after he put his fist through a window while drunk. Paul also makes plans for how to get police protection for the couple’s other housemate, who received threatening text messages from Ukwuachu.
Paul is Boise State’s’ head athletic trainer. Would Petersen not have been told any of this by a guy who, by the nature of his role with the program, provides daily medical updates to coaches? Also, as one head coach at a Power 5 program explained to me on Friday, in cases where there is a vague reason given publicly for a player’s dismissal, when another programs considers whether to take that player as a transfer, "head coaches talk to head coaches, assistants talk to other assistants and trainers talk to trainers."
The subject of taking a transfer with major baggage in college football is not new, but when it comes to taking on guys who get booted from a team for these “unspecified" rules violations, I wondered how thorough some of these football programs are willing to be. I spoke to seven coaches Friday (five of them head coaches) and asked how they handle such situations; all seven said you must find out what the player has been in trouble for.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...convicted-player-ukwuachu-violent-past-082115
