Vetting process exceeded the norm
Applewhite defends hiring of coaches as best for his players
University of Houston coach Major Applewhite said Thursday “all the boxes” were checked during an extensive vetting process before he hired two former Baylor assistants to his football staff.
UH received public backlash when on Jan. 6 Applewhite hired Kendal Briles and Randy Clements, who were on staff at Baylor when the school and football program were rocked by a sexual assault scandal.
“You’re never going to have total positive reaction on anything,” Applewhite said. “That’s part of being a leader. That’s part of understanding you’re not going to make everyone happy. I had a great leader that I worked for as a coach and he said ‘that’s why they make chocolate and that’s why they make vanilla. Because not everybody likes the same thing, and you’re going to deal with some issues.’ ”
Neither Briles nor Clements was implicated in the scandal, which cost Art Briles, Kendal’s father, his job, along with athletic director Ian McCaw and president Ken Starr.
Applewhite said the UH interview process went beyond
a typical coaching hire that is generally handled within the athletic department, and included president Renu Khator and the school’s legal counsel Dona Cornell.
“The natural instinct because of what is out there is to have a little pause,” Applewhite said. “But as you go through the process, find out details and facts and use proper channels, you go above and beyond our typical background and hiring process and get everybody on campus involved.”
Cautious approach
At no point, Applewhite said, did he make a sales pitch to hire both coaches.
“I said, ‘let’s go through the process and do what’s right here,’ ” Applewhite said. “If it checks out, then we can do it. If it doesn’t, we won’t.”
Briles, who was hired as associate head coach/ offensive coordinator, was never implicated in the scandal, but he’s named in a pending lawsuit that alleges he tried to attract recruits by saying female students at Baylor liked the players. The lawsuit alleges Briles told a Dallasarea recruit, “Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at Baylor and they love football players.”
Applewhite said he has no recruiting concerns about Briles, who was suspended one game for having impermissible contact with a prospect in 2015, an NCAA violation.
Clements coordinates the running game and coaches the offensive line.
A morality clause is included in the contracts for both coaches that gives UH the right to terminate if any information from their time at Baylor comes out that has not previously been disclosed.
Asked if he worried about public opinion associating Briles and Clements with the Baylor scandal, Applewhite said, “Public opinion is difficult because often it’s not always based on fact.”
Khator said this week that the university “wanted to make sure that we have every guarantee that our (football) program will be absolutely the highest ethical standards,”
Applewhite said the hires were a decision he thought would help his program, which struggled offensively and was 7-5.
What’s best for team
“It goes back to getting the very best for your players,” he said. “And that’s the goal. I have to do what’s best for the University of Houston in terms of winning football games. After going through that process and the powers-thatbe told me this was OK, I knew I was getting the very best for our players.
“That’s something I promised myself when I got into this profession 13, 15 years ago. I want to do the very best for players.
“I’ve been one. I want to give them the very best opportunity educationally, athletically and life skillswise as they move on.
“I feel confident in our leadership all the way from Dr. Khator to our athletic director (Chris Pezman) to myself of the type of program we run and the values we have. Those will never change, regardless of what players or coaches come in here.”