by Nick Eatman
That decision was definitely a win-win-win for Briles, who also kept one of his best recruiters on the staff in Lebby as signing day approached. For months, Baylor’s recruiting class was shaping up as perhaps the best in school history, with many highly recruited players committed to the Bears.
However, as all veteran coaches have experienced in the past, verbal commitments aren’t always solid. Not until the signed letters of intent start rolling in on the fax will the coaches rest easy.
And as National Signing Day approached, Baylor was starting to feel a bit uneasy about some of its most-prized commits, such as offensive tackle Patrick Hudson. The Silsbee, Texas, native, rated by some national recruiting services as one of the top two offensive linemen in the country, had been solid in his commitment to the Bears throughout his senior year. But a few weeks before signing day, he had taken an official visit to Texas and pictures of him wearing a Longhorns jersey and flashing the “hook ’em” sign were surfacing on the Internet. Some of the recruiting reporters were even suggesting Hudson was on “flip watch,” as a prominent player who could flip his decision to another school.
Briles, however, might have sweated Hudson’s decision a little more had the player’s mother not told him during the weekend that her son wasn’t planning on making any changes. And sure enough, Hudson was one of the first to fax over his letter of intent come Wednesday morning.
In actuality, the Bears got a huge flip a few days earlier when Waco defensive back Parrish Cobb decided to change his commitment from Oklahoma to stay home and play for Baylor. When Briles and his staff first got to Waco, keeping local kids at home hadn’t been a regular occurrence. Future NFL stars such as LaDainian Tomlinson (TCU) and Derrick Johnson (Texas) never truly considered playing for Baylor, and they weren’t alone. Waco’s high school standouts usually left for greener pastures.
Slowly but surely, though, the tide turned as Baylor started winning, with Ahmad Dixon deciding in 2010 to stay in Waco as one of the first big hometown wins. And Briles and Lebby both considered Cobb’s last-minute change another huge recruiting swing for the program’s 2016 class. And this one hit home, literally, for Lebby, who was next-door neighbors with Cobb and his family in 2009 and 2010 when he was just a graduate assistant on Baylor’s staff.
“Parrish is born and raised in Waco, Waco to the core,” Lebby said. “We’ve stayed in touch over the years. For him to flip and commit to us was a big deal. Just a huge, huge flip.”
The other memorable last-minute change for Baylor since Briles took over came in 2013 with the signing of Andrew Billings, another Waco standout who was seemingly headed for Texas until he surprised the coaching staff, not with a phone call, but via fax. When his commitment rolled through the fax machine, it sent a roar throughout the hallways of the coaching offices. They knew getting a dominant defensive tackle such as Billings could be a game changer.
They couldn’t have been more right about that after Billings naturally disappointed his coaches after the 2015 season by announcing he would forgo his senior year and jump to the NFL. Billings was one of three Baylor underclassmen to enter the NFL Draft, along with cornerback Xavien Howard and receiver Corey Coleman, who had made his own announcement back in early December after the Texas game.
“It’s always a little bittersweet,” Briles told reporters during Baylor’s Pro Day on campus, where all draft-eligible players get the chance to conduct combine-like drills, tests, and on-field workouts in front of NFL personnel. “On one hand, you wish they would stay and play four years because they’re just good. You want good players. But as a coach, it’s great exposure for the program to have your players drafted. Plus, it’s what all kids dream about. They dream about playing in the NFL and you want them to go catch their dreams.”
Standing in Baylor’s indoor facility during the middle of the Pro Day workout, he pointed up to the wall where colorful, giant banners of the school’s recent first-round picks hung larger than life. Robert Griffin III and Kendall Wright were two of the five NFL first-rounders who suited up for Baylor since Briles arrived.
“We’ve got some room for a few more,” he quipped. “I’m thinking we could have two, maybe even three this year.”
Briles believed all three of his underclassmen had a chance to be first-round picks, especially after Coleman ran a blazing 4.35 in front of the scouts at the Pro Day. Howard and Billings would also have a chance to sneak into the first round, he figured.
One player who seemed likely to be a first-round pick had he come out a year earlier was defensive end Shawn Oakman, who decided to return to Baylor for the 2015 campaign, eyeing the chance to possibly be a top-ten pick. But over the course of the year, his play on the field didn’t quite size up to his muscular, Adonis-like body.
While Oakman did become Baylor’s all-time leader in sacks and flashed dominant plays throughout the season, his draft status instead declined. But Oakman’s arrow started pointing up again when he recorded two sacks during the Senior Bowl—the most prestigious college all-star game—and then ran a 4.79 time in the 40-yard dash, which is quite fast for a 6–7, 290-pound athlete.
However, just two weeks before the draft, Oakman was arrested by Waco Police on a sexual assault charge that stemmed from an incident that occurred on April 3. While Oakman claimed the entire incident was consensual, his name was not cleared by the time that the NFL gathered for its yearly selection process on April 28. The once-presumed first-round pick, who had to watch his draft stock dip into the middle rounds, now wasn’t expected to be drafted at all, or even signed by a pro team as an undrafted free agent.
For Baylor, it was yet another dark cloud on the matter of sexual assault, coming on the heels of the Sam Ukwuachu incident and the ongoing Pepper Hamilton investigation.
Oakman’s incident marred what had been a rather pleasant off-season for Baylor, which had conducted another successful spring of practices. Sophomore quarterback Jarett Stidham was able to run most of the first-team reps, and Seth Russell was also cleared for contact after undergoing neck surgery back in October. For Briles, it was creating a good “problem” in that Stidham and Russell figured to have quite a competition for the starting job come August.
But before he could officially roll into the 2016 season, Briles had to put a bow on the previous year, which occurred in Chicago at the NFL Draft. Accompanied by his son, Kendal, Briles had a seat at Coleman’s table in the Green Room, where about twenty-five projected first-round picks sit with their families and closest friends and/or coaches to await word on their next football destination.
After fourteen picks came off the board, Coleman’s cell phone rang, prompting every bystander within earshot to perk up in excitement to hear who was on the other end.
But those who were within earshot of Coleman only heard him say, “What’s up?” and “I’m ready, Coach” and “Yes, sir.”
Coleman hung up the phone and said, “I’m going to Cleveland, baby!” which brought an eruption of cheers and hugs from his biggest supporters, including his mom, Cassandra Jones, who couldn’t control her emotions as she emphatically hugged her son.
On the other end of the phone, Coleman was talking with Browns’ executive vice president, Sashi Brown, and head coach, Hue Jackson. Brown asked him if he was “ready to catch some touchdowns?”
Moments later, Coleman was announced as the fifteenth overall pick, becoming the first wide receiver taken off the board, ahead of both Josh Doctson of TCU and Ole Miss’ Laquon Treadwell, the two receivers he also had beaten out to win the Biletnikoff Award in December.
“First receiver off the board!” Briles said to Kendal, knowing their self-proclaimed moniker as “Wide Receiver U” had just received an extra jolt of ammunition. The Briles duo also had a few “Go Cleveland!” chants, knowing they would be paying even closer attention to the Browns now with Coleman joining Griffin, who had signed a free-agen
t deal with Cleveland in March. Griffin, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner, never played with Coleman while at Baylor, but made several trips back to Waco to work out and support the program, creating a bond with many of the receivers, including Coleman.
A Richardson, Texas, native who starred at J.J. Pearce High School, Coleman dreamed of one day playing for the Dallas Cowboys. But as the catches turned into touchdowns during his time at Baylor and reality set in that the NFL was no longer a dream but his destiny, his allegiance shifted instantly to his new team.
“I’m just so excited about getting drafted and going to Cleveland,” Coleman said. “This is a dream come true for me.”
For Briles, that was music to his ears, considering he always tells his players to “catch your dreams.” In fact, throughout the draft weekend, with every congratulatory tweet he sent out regarding his players, he used the hashtag “#dreamscaught.”
While only Coleman went in the first round, Howard went high in the second (thirty-ninth overall) to the Miami Dolphins, while Billings surprisingly slipped into the fourth round, taken by the Cincinnati Bengals. Spencer Drango joined Coleman and Griffin in Cleveland as a fifth-round pick and long-snapper, Jimmy Landes, was the only player at his position to get drafted, going to the Detroit Lions in the sixth round.
Baylor basketball player Rico Gathers, who hadn’t played football since junior high but had decided to take his skills and power-forward body to the gridiron, was drafted by the Cowboys in the sixth round. Baylor then had five more players sign free-agent deals with teams following the draft.
“It’s an exciting time for these players, and it’s an exciting time for Baylor,” Briles said. “They grow up with a dream of playing in the NFL. To watch them live out their dreams is really what it’s all about.”
However, the dream for some was a nightmare for Oakman, who never heard his name called during the draft weekend. In fact, no NFL team even inquired with Briles to get further information on the situation and perhaps sign him at a later point if his name was cleared.
But as it would turn out, the Oakman incident was merely the start of what would become a monumental twist to the Baylor football program that had been under an increasing amount of scrutiny since the previous August. Even though Oakman had graduated and was not technically on the football team anymore, his incident seemed to demonstrate that the cases of Sam Ukwuachu and Tevin Elliot before his were not isolated events. And this time, national media outlets weren’t so forgiving. An ESPN Outside the Lines report listed more details on previous incidents going back several years, including Tevin Elliott. Outside the Lines also revealed an alleged 2013 sexual assault involving Oakman that was never reported to authorities, which led to his one-game suspension for the SMU game at the start of the 2015 season.
Baylor coaches and officials refuted some of the claims of the Outside the Lines report, as did the Waco Police Department, which was criticized for shielding some of the incidents involving football players from the media and public record. From the Oakman situation, to the Ukwuachu trial that went to an appeal hearing, to many of the incidents in the report, most of them were either unsettled by the courts, still pending, or had never gone to a trial.
Still, the number of occurrences had starting to become overwhelming. And Baylor’s reputation—from that of President Ken Starr to Athletic Director Ian McCall to Art Briles and his staff—started to receive unruly media attention, with most of them suggesting those three, and more, be removed from their positions.
Ironically enough, on the morning of May 15, about three miles from the Baylor campus, blasts of dynamite could be heard throughout town. The historic Floyd Casey Stadium, the home for Baylor football from 1950 to 2013, was demolished, taking about five seconds to crumble to the ground.
The stadium, while archaic and outdated over the years, was a symbol of history—where the program had been for more than sixty years. One of Briles’ early visions when taking over the program was winning enough games to create a culture that would not only warrant a new stadium, but also lead the heavy-pocketed to support it. All of that had taken place as Baylor had completed two seasons in the plush McLane Stadium.
By blowing up Floyd Casey Stadium, it was like Baylor was saying it was blowing up a part of the school’s past. But no one could’ve ever predicted an even bigger explosion on the horizon that would undoubtedly shake up the present and, perhaps, the future of the program as well.
Sunday
While there are a plethora of differences between the high school, college, and NFL levels, one of the biggest involves the addition of players to a roster.
For the most part, high schools are limited to the players who live within the district lines. Colleges spend countless hours, even two to three years in advance, to recruit players, jumping through all sorts of hoops and toeing the line within the NCAA rules to land the best players.
While the phrase “the rich get richer” applies mostly to college programs, it’s not the case for the NFL. The teams that struggle the most get first crack at getting the best players in the draft, and after a disappointing, yet shocking 4–12 season, the Cowboys found themselves right at the top of the draft order, owning the fourth overall pick, their highest position since 1991, when they traded up to get the number-one selection.
While the Cowboys learned of their draft order immediately following the regular season, there was still nearly four months before the NFL Draft and several key moments and obstacles that stood before them.
The first of them was the Senior Bowl, the annual all-star game for college seniors wanting to showcase their skills on the field through a week full of practices as well as the actual game. The event has continued to grow over the years, as all thirty-two teams now flock to Mobile, Alabama, sending scouts, coaches, and front-office personnel to mingle with each other, oftentimes using that opportunity to interview potential coaching assistants for vacant spots. In fact, unemployed coaches and staff members seeking NFL employment make it a point to show up during Senior Bowl week.
This year would see the Cowboys send more than just coaches and scouts. Because of their poor record, they were picked by the NFL to serve as one of the coaching staffs of the game, meaning their entire football staff of equipment managers, trainers, and video staffers also made the trip.
Some called it “Week 18” of the NFL season, although the level of intensity of the on-field coaching and the meetings during the week weren’t exactly equal to the regular season. Still, Jason Garrett saw it as a chance to get a close-up look at many of the players who would be in the draft, including a possible quarterback candidate in Carson Wentz, an intriguing prospect from North Dakota State. The 6-5, 237-pound quarterback came from a small school, but a program that knows how to win. Wentz helped his team capture two straight national championships on the second-tier FCS level of college football, and he held a 20–3 record as a starter.
Placed on the North squad, Wentz was coached by the Cowboys, giving them a front-row seat to evaluate his arm strength, his mechanics, his command of the huddle, and how he prepared off the field.
At the end of one practice, Jerry Jones was in the middle of a media session with a few reporters when he noticed Wentz walking off the field. Jones excused himself quickly, knowing what he was about to do would create quite a buzz.
He stopped Wentz to introduce himself, catching the quarterback by surprise, before carrying on for a quick chat.
“Is it hard breathing up there,” Jones said, referring to Wentz’ towering height. The rookie-to-be laughed it off and then shook hands with the Cowboys owner, who then went back to the reporters, although most of them had followed Jones to hear the conversation.
Just like that, it was as if Jones and the Cowboys had launched a draft-sized grenade at the rest of the league.
Message delivered.
Don’t think fo
r a second that Jones couldn’t have met with Wentz at any time during his two-day visit to Mobile, but he wanted it out there for the world to see. He got the chance to buy the Cowboys because he was a smart businessman who knew how to play the game.
That one meeting put the Cowboys in the quarterback market, whether it was actually true or not. But with Tony Romo having battled a back injury for the last two years, and now broken his clavicle three times since 2010, not to mention his turning thirty-six in April, the writing seemed to be on the wall that the Cowboys would be entertaining the thought of taking a quarterback—at least at some point in this draft, and perhaps with the number-four pick.
As for Romo, who had been debating on whether or not to undergo surgery on his left clavicle, he finally decided to have what was called a Mumford procedure on March 8. The surgery included shaving off the bone to create more space between the shoulder joints. The timetable for his return was just six to eight weeks, giving him ample time to be ready for the off-season workouts and, of course, training camp.
Publicly, Jones and the Cowboys were standing fully behind Romo, as the owner said several times through the media that his quarterback still had “four or five more years left in him.” Behind closed doors, however, there were rumblings around Valley Ranch that this was indeed the time to draft a signal-caller for the future.
Romo started four games in 2015, with the Cowboys going 3–1. In the twelve games without him, their record was a dismal 1–11. Clearly, this team had no shot of winning games, much less competing for division titles, without him.
But it also caused quite a debate within places such as the scouting War Room and the coaches’ meeting rooms.