By Meghan Mitchell | Sports Editor
Drama continues to circulate around the Baylor football team as questions arise about the person behind the dismissal of former defensive lineman Jeremy Faulk this past summer.
Interim head coach Jim Grobe said Faulk, a junior college transfer from Garden City Community College in Kansas, was dismissed from the team in June after being accused of sexual assault.
“If you’ve got players on your team that have been implicated in any wrongdoing, you have to decide if they can represent the football team or not, and that’s always the football coach’s decision,” said interim head coach Jim Grobe in a press conference. “I think that’s the way most coaches deal with problems. If you’ve got kids that have issues, they may come back to the football team, but they may not temporarily be able to represent the football team, and that’s not just Jeremy, it’s any kid on our football team.”
However, Grobe contacted KWTX after his statement on Monday to clarify that it was not his decision to dismiss Faulk.
Grobe’s admission to KWTX contradicts what Executive Associate Athletic Director Nick Joos said Friday in a Baylor press release.
“The action to remove Jeremy from the football team was taken by the interim director of athletics and acting head football coach and did not require other Executive Council members nor Title IX staff involvement,” Joos said.
Although Faulk was never arrested for assault, he also had an incident questioned when he was a student at Florida Atlantic. He is confused as to why he was stripped of his scholarship and spot on the team.
“Coach Grobe called me in the office and told me the administration had to release me, and he said there was nothing he could do. It was out of his hands,” Faulk said in an interview with KWTX.
Although he was technically still enrolled, Faulk, with no scholarship and no money for housing, was left on the streets until his mother sent him enough money to get home.
“It was crazy because I went back home and I couldn’t even tell people around my city what happened. Everyone kept asking me, and I didn’t know what to say, so to them, I did something wrong,” Faulk said to KWTX.
While it remains uncertain as to who had the final say in Faulk’s dismissal from the team, the Baylor football team and staff continues to be under watch by the Baylor community.
