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Baylor Suspends OC Kendal Briles, WR Coach Tate Wallis for Lamar Game Due to Recruiting Violations

That's a headline I didn't anticipate writing today, but there it is.

By Mark C. Moore
Tom Pennington/Getty Images

So, this happened a few minutes ago:

Two things arising from this news:

  1. Initially, I wondered if this suspension might relate to allegations that Baylor coaches visited J.W. Ketchum, who ended up signing with the Bears, during an evaluation period in 2014.  As ESPN's Max Olson pointed out, however, Baylor's statement references contact in 2015, and Wallis was unable to recruit off-campus until this year.  Also, the original story from SI indicates that this relates to allegations from this past spring regarding contact at spring games and a track meet.  So I was clearly wrong on that. 
  2. Who calls the plays tomorrow?*  Make no mistake about news like this; it's important to Baylor's offense to have consistency and predictability, particularly when it comes to who calls the plays and where they call them from.  With Kendal Briles off the sideline, two people come to mind as possible replacements: Art Briles (seems unlikely) or Jeff Lebby (current RB coach).  Otherwise, I'm not sure who wears the mantle.

*To clarify, I'm talking about actually calling the plays onto the field.  I'm sure Art Briles will call the plays, in that he will decide which plays we run and when.  I'm more concerned about who calls the plays onto the field.

This is an interesting story, but I'm not sure how much else will be there.  It seems, from my reading, that a game suspension is pretty typical in situations involving improper contact.  So the potential for further sanctions seems pretty small.  But in the larger context of what's going on in the program, I guarantee that those who think Baylor/Briles are out of control will cite this as further proof.  My recommendation: ignore them.

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