Baylor names Jim Grobe interim coach; athletic director resigns
McCaw resigns in wake of scandal; Grobe to guide 2016 football team
Baylor University athletic director Ian McCaw resigned Monday afternoon, shortly after the university named former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe its acting football coach as repercussions continue from the on-campus enforcement scandal that last week cost football coach Art Briles and university president Kenneth Starr their jobs.
McCaw, who was reprimanded and placed on probation by the university’s board of regents, announced his departure about an hour after Baylor said it had hired Grobe, describing the veteran coach’s “well-earned reputation for disciplined play” as a possible antidote for the controversy that has roiled Baylor in recent weeks.
“After much reflection and prayer, I have decided that a change in athletics department leadership is in Baylor University’s best interest in order to promote the unity, healing and restoration that must occur in order to move forward,” McCaw said.
“I have always sought to
put the university’s needs ahead of my own. My time at Baylor has been an incredible journey filled with some of the most remarkable people I have ever known. I am grateful to Baylor Nation for its support and dedication and to all who have done so much to advance the athletics program.”
Grobe accepted the acting coach’s job during what he described in a university news release as an “important time” for Baylor.
“I am looking forward to getting to know and working with the coaches and players in the coming days, and I have great respect for Baylor as an institution and its long-standing heritage,” he said.
“As a coach, winning is important. At the same time, I want to assure the Baylor family that every decision we will make in this football program will be made with Baylor University, her students and our student-athletes in mind.”
Resignation leaves void Baylor’s announcements did not indicate whether the remainder of Briles’ coaching staff will remain on board with Grobe, and the school did not say who will have administrative responsibility for the athletic department in the wake of McCaw’s resignation.
Baylor regents in a one-paragraph statement noted McCaw’s “difficult decision to resign as athletic director” and that they were “grateful for his service to Baylor University. We also appreciate Ian’s commitment and involvement in bringing a person of integrity such as Jim Grobe to the University before making this decision.”
McCaw’s tenure at Baylor included the most successful athletic period in its history, with the football team reaching five consecutive bowls for the first time and producing its first Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2011 and the construction of the university’s oncampus McLane Stadium.
His departure completes a sweeping week of change at Baylor in the wake of a report critical of the university’s response, particularly in the football program, to incidents of violent crime and sexual assault against women at the school.
McCaw was hired in September 2003 in the wake of the scandal associated with the murder of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy by a teammate, Carlton Dotson, and efforts by Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss to depict Dennehy’s death as drugrelated in an effort to cover up the fact Bliss had paid for Dennehy’s tuition in a way to avoid NCAA scholarship limitations.
That case, however, might be dwarfed by the impact and reaction to the report of multiple sexual abuse allegations and charges against football players under Briles and inadequate reaction by the university and the football program.
Scathing report Attorneys for the Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton conducted a 10-month investigation into Baylor’s failure in Title IX and related compliance issues and last week reported its findings to the school, which noted “significant concerns about the tone and culture within Baylor’s football program as it relates to accountability for all forms of athlete misconduct.”
In the wake of that report, the reference to Grobe’s “well-earned reputation for disciplined play” was eye-catching, as is his long association with Grant Teaff, the former Baylor coach and retired executive director of the American Football Coaches Association.
Grobe, 64, spent eight years, Baylor noted, as chairman of the AFCA’s ethics committee.
Grobe coached for 13 seasons at Wake Forest from 2001-13 with a record of 7782, including an Atlantic Coast Conference championship, the second in school history, in 2006. The Demon Deacons were 28-12 from 2006-08 and played in three consecutive bowls for the first time in school history.
Grobe also coached for six years at Ohio with a 3333-1 record and was the 1996 Mid-American Conference coach of the year.
His 2008 Wake Forest team beat Baylor 41-13 in Briles’ first home game as Baylor’s head coach. Baylor won a 2009 rematch 24-21.