WACO, Texas — Jeremy Faulk runs on his own. He lifts weights. Last month at a Division II college in Kansas he compiled physical marks that rival those of the best defensive line prospects in this week's NFL draft.
But that performance came in front of a fraction of the number of scouts who attended his former school's pro day. Twenty-nine teams were represented here when Baylor held its pro day April 5.
Faulk was briefly a defensive tackle at Baylor, never suiting up in a game for the Bears. His departure from the school in the wake of its sexual assault scandal leaves him facing questions about his future, particularly one in professional football.
In the two years prior to Faulk's January 2016 transfer to Baylor after playing at Garden City (Kan.) Community College and Florida Atlantic University, two Bears players had been convicted of sexual assault. At the time of Faulk's enrollment, Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton was in the midst of an investigation of the school's handling of sexual assaults, with a close eye on the football program.
In May 2016, “findings of fact” by Pepper Hamilton revealed a Baylor football program with “no culture of accountability for misconduct.” Coach Art Briles was fired as a result of the report.
A week later, Faulk was gone, too.
At the time, Faulk was the subject of a Title IX investigation that stemmed from a sexual assault complaint after he arrived here. But that was not the reason for his dismissal. Instead, the school let the unanswered allegation factor into its decision making while retroactively vetting and punishing Faulk for an incident at a previous school.
“They were supposed to give me a chance to defend myself,” Faulk said. “They just threw me out. They didn’t give me a chance to do nothing. It was just my name came up and I was done.”
At the time of his dismissal from the football team, Faulk had not been notified of the Title IX investigation into the allegation against him.
Instead, several Baylor administrators told Faulk it was Faulk's misrepresentation of an incident at Florida Atlantic his lawyer calls a “dormitory prank” that led to his dismissal. Though Baylor said it found that incident sufficient to dismiss Faulk from the team, it wasn’t aware of it when he arrived on campus because the school had not performed a more thorough background check before admitting him.
“I think there’s some real questions, and I know I’m not alone here, about the way this was handled,” said Dwight Allman, an associate professor of political science at Baylor.
“The questions in this case concern whether there wasn’t an overreaction on the part of certain administrators that is, certainly in the broader context, understandable given what’s unfolded and how hard it has hit Baylor as an institution.”
Following Faulk’s dismissal from the football team, Baylor asserted he withdrew from the school after missing one class day. On June 10, Lyn Wheeler Kinyon, Baylor's assistant vice president for financial aid, notified Faulk via email that Baylor had canceled his scholarship.
Faulk appealed, and a panel of three staff members from Baylor’s financial aid office, chaired by Kinyon, rejected the athletic department’s argument that Faulk misled the department about prior conduct.
The panel reinstated Faulk’s scholarship on July 6. Faulk's attorney Richard Tate asked a day later if Faulk could rejoin the football team should the player prevail in a Title IX hearing, but the Baylor athletic department said Faulk would not be on the team regardless of the outcome of the hearing.
Instead, he went back to Garden City, and Baylor suspended the Title IX investigation.
“It just seems like everything has affected everybody but Baylor,” said Jeff Sims, Faulk’s coach at Garden City. “They’re protecting Baylor. Not the girls. Not the men. Nobody was treated in a process that would bring justice to anybody involved.”
