Briles says he would have done things differently

Former Baylor University President Ken Starr says he will step down as chancellor for the university.

In the statement sent Thursday morning, Briles also said he had not seen the Pepper Hamilton report, and that he is “contractually obligated to remain silent on the matter”.

Starr a year ago recommended to the school’s regents that Baylor hire the law firm Pepper Hamilton to review the university’s record on the issue.

Ian McCaw resigned as athletics director four days later, amid a scandal in recent years in which two former football players were convicted of sexual assault, another arrested and numerous others named in police reports alleging sexual and physical violence.

Baylor University President Kenneth Starr resigned as chancellor of the world’s largest Baptist university yesterday after being implicated in a report for not doing enough to probe sexual assaults by athletes. “We need to be honest”, Starr said.

WACO-The executive committee of The Baylor Line Foundation-formerly the Baylor Alumni Association-urged Baylor University’s board of regents to release the full report by the law firm that investigated the university’s response to reports of sexual violence. An investigation released last week found that under Starr’s leadership, Baylor did little to respond to accusations of sexual assault involving football players over several years.

“We need to put this awful experience behind us”, Starr said in the ESPN interview.

“We recognize this is a tumultuous time for Baylor, most importantly for our current and former students and victims of sexual assault. In the “Findings of Fact” document released by the Board of Regents last Thursday, it was stated that there is now no written report from Pepper Hamilton, but one can be prepared. The news came out of systematic cover-ups in regards to sexual assault allegations of their football players.

By running their own “untrained” investigations and meeting directly with a complainant, football staff “improperly discredited” complainants claims and “denied them a right to a fair, impartial and informed investigation”.

Briles added, “I have certainly made mistakes, and, in hindsight, I would have done certain things differently”. It’s unknown whether Briles negotiated a buyout with Baylor, and he didn’t give any details in his statement.

He insinuated that the university has not been fully transparent about the investigation’s findings.

Now, Briles has issues a statement… and while he didn’t specifically address the allegations – he acknowledged he made mistakes during his coaching career.