UCF takes 25-0 run to Fiesta Bowl
Assistant thrives with Knights after surviving ugly Baylor scandal
As the Knights gear up for their Jan. 1 showdown against LSU, take a look back at the season, top playmakers and more.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A year ago UCF assistant Jeff Lebby was in coaching exile at a college football outpost as far away from the big-time as you could possibly get.
He might as well have worn a scarlet ‘B’ on his coaching shirt as he served his penance for being on the staff at scandal-scarred Baylor.
A respected coach with an innovative offensive mind, Lebby had been relegated to Southeastern University, a tiny Christian college in Lakeland that competes as a low-level NAIA program. Lebby was the offensive coordinator at Southeastern when his old friend and fellow Oklahoma alumnus, UCF head coach Josh Heupel, rescued him from the college football wilderness.
“Being at Southeastern was part of going through the process with everything happening the way it happened [at Baylor], ” Lebby said Saturday as No. 8 UCF prepared for the upcoming Fiesta Bowl matchup with No. 11 LSU. “It was actually a great seven months. Coaching is coaching. Finding ways to win a bunch a games and score a bunch of points — regardless of where you’re doing it — is always fun.”
Southeast made the playoffs and led all of NAIA in scoring last season but, more important, it was a second chance for Lebby. Considering all of the ethical and legal baggage involved in the Baylor sexual-assault scandal, it becomes a major administrative decision when you hire assistants who worked for disgraced Baylor head coach Art Briles.
It’s an even more of an issue for coaches like Lebby, who is Briles’ son-in-law, and for new FSU offensive coordinator Kendal Briles — the son of Baylor’s former head coach. Obviously, we are a nation founded on the principles of redemption and second chances, but there must be discussion and conversation before those second chances are given. UCF athletics director Danny White says those discussions were had before Lebby was hired.
Said White: “After meeting with Jeff and learning firsthand his personal experience at Baylor, and after speaking with the administration at both Baylor and Southeastern, we became not only comfortable but excited to bring a coach and person of Jeff ’s caliber to UCF. I think the results of the last 12 months speak for themselves, and Jeff ’s contribution to our program both on and off the field have been profound. Our staff and, more importantly, our student-athletes love working with him.”
The hiring of former Baylor assistants became a controversial topic a few days ago when news broke that FSU coach Willie Taggart hired Kendal Briles away from Houston. Understandably, the Seminoles faced extra scrutiny and public criticism. After all, FSU has already been embroiled in a federal Title IX investigation involving the shoddy way in which the school handled the sexual-assault allegations involving former Heisman-winning quarterback Jameis Winston. If any school should answer tough questions about hiring a former Baylor assistant coach, it’s FSU.
The question is how much should Baylor’s former assistant coaches be held accountable when their superiors in the university’s administration obviously knew of and seemingly did nothing about the multiple charges of sexual assaults and gang rapes involving several football players? Not only did Art Briles lose his job when this rape culture began to surface, but so, too, did school president Ken Starr and athletics director Ian McCaw. Former Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford also resigned.