Baylor Bears

Petersen refutes Briles' claim, says he shared info on convicted player's troubled past

Published Aug. 21, 2015 2:46 p.m. ET

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Bruce Feldman

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 online 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. 

“If you can’t find out, you can’t take him — not in this day and time,” said one head coach in a Power 5 conference. “You just can’t. And whatever happened, it’s going to come out eventually. We just had to pass on a guy who I think is a good kid, but we just couldn’t get an answer.”

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