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BAYLOR UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 18, 2016

Dallas, Texas

THE MODERATOR: Thank you all for coming out here this afternoon, and first of all I would like to thank Commissioner Bowlsby and the staff for being so accommodating and letting us have this event here on Media Day. At this time, I would like to introduce Baylor University Interim President, Dr. David Garland.

DR. DAVID GARLAND: It's my pleasure to introduce our new Vice President and Athletic Director, Mack Rhoades. He is the eleventh Athletic Director at Baylor University. He will begin on August 15th. He has a proven track record that focuses on excellence in the field and in the classroom at the University of Texas, El Paso, University of Akron, Houston University and the University of Missouri.

Mack places a priority on developing student-athletes for their lives after athletics and cultivating character and integrity that prepares them for their lives for after sports. He is a relationship builder. He cares about people. He strives to know them and from coaches and staff to colleagues across campus I'm confident that he's going to build the kind of partnerships that we need to make the improvements that Baylor is committed to make.

Mack is a man of faith and he believes in and is excited about the mission of Baylor University that is 170 years old. I believe that Mack is the right person to lead our athletic program and look forward to working with him as he continues to build another program at Baylor University. Thanks.

MACK RHOADES: Thank you. I'm a little better when I'm standing than sitting, so it is great to see everybody. I see some familiar faces, some friends. Thank you for being here. President Garland, thank you very much not only for those kind words but also for your trust.

I'm truly humbled to join the Baylor University family and will do all I can to ensure our mission of educating young men and women for world-wide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and a Christian commitment within a caring community is upheld each and every day.

Before I move on, I certainly want to give a shout out to all of the great people in Waco and let them know that Amy and the girls and I are certainly excited. We're going to roll into Waco tomorrow about 10:30 a.m., and we can't wait to become members of the community. Sorry that we couldn't do the press conference there, but just because of logistics we needed to do it here, but "Sick 'em Bears," and we look forward to our time in Waco.

Special thanks to our Board of Regents, specifically Chair, Ron Morph and Regent Dan Hord who are among those in the process who brought me here to Baylor. Where is Todd? Todd, stand up. Todd Patulski, please stand. Done such a great job in his interim role as Director of Athletics providing great leadership, and Todd will continue in that role until I hit the ground running on Monday, August 15th.

Commissioner Bowlsby and the Big XII Conference office just to repeat what Nick had to say, special thanks for allowing us to carve out a little piece of Big XII Media Days. I certainly look forward to working with Commissioner Bowlsby as he has provided great leadership for this conference for what I think is one of the best conferences certainly in the country and we're going to make sure that Baylor University makes the Big XII even better.

Before I speak, for a moment on the incredible opportunity ahead of us here at Baylor, I want to thank the leadership of the University of Missouri, the incredibly dedicated staff, coaches and tremendous student-athletes who make the state of Missouri so proud. Though my time in Columbia was short, the memories will last a lifetime. I wish Missouri the very, very best, and I will continue to cheer them on except for if they ever play the Baylor Bears.

As Dr. Garland alluded to, I am a man of faith, a man of family, and a man who is inspired by working with young men and women in helping them become champions in life. It all begins with our deep devotion to Christianity bolstered by the incredible women I call my family. My talented and beautiful wife, Amy. She is the rock of our family and she is my inspiration. Amy, would you stand? Our daughters, Nicolette, Natalie and Noelle, are our precious gifts from God, and would you three please stand? We rehearsed that by the way! Being parents has become our most and has been our most important job. And I hope you'll agree with me that I have, I think I have the ability to recruit just a little bit.

Why Baylor? Baylor is a great institution, where there is the integration of faith, academic excellence and athletic excellence. Why Baylor? Waco, Texas. Because we believe it's a great place for our family to be, a wonderful community made up of very, very caring people, and yes, oh, by the way, we love The Fixer Upper. That is a staple in our household and I apologize to our coaches because our girls are more excited about meeting Chip and Joanna Gaines than our coaches, but we will change that.

I also believe that you win with people. We can have all of the great resources, facilities, the largest, biggest budget, but none of it matters unless you have great people, and I believe we have great university leadership. We have terrific coaches, Coach Jim Grobe, Coach Kim Mulkey, Coach Drew, Coach Goble, Coach Harbour, Coach Jobson, Coach Knoll, Coach McGraw, Coach McGuyre, Coach Moore, Coach Felicia Mulkey, Coach Rodriguez, Coach Scrivano and Coach White. We have a wonderful staff; and, yes, we have tremendous student-athletes.

Baylor has the resources, we have the tools to develop young people spiritually, socially, academically, and athletically. We will never compromise any of those. I know the past several months have been difficult for the Baylor family. The healing especially for those who were harmed and left vulnerable due to the actions of a few will take time and care.

I do not pretend to have a deep level of understanding of all that has happened, but I do know if the men and women who love this university, those who came before and those here now are committed to the Christian values and come together to strengthen this university the skies are limitless. We will be committed to excellence in all areas. Over the past few days, much has been written about my motivations for coming to Waco. Let me be clear: This is an opportunity. An opportunity where I can see what can be. An opportunity to help lead one of the world's leading Christian universities in our familiar Texas. A state where we came to love many, many years ago. A state where my grandfather, my hero, was born and raised. An opportunity to win national championships, to watch our student-athletes graduate, and to bear witness as they go on to do great things serving the world.

Simply, I see opportunities and not challenges. The vision: I can stand up here today and make all sorts of promises about character and personal responsibility, academic achievement and winning titles; and by the way, we will do all of those things with great integrity.

But I know that doing is better than simply telling. So we will get right to work on building a foundation, a championship culture for success at Baylor. We will focus on building championship processes, and strive for excellence in all we can do. If we all, meaning the University leaders, coaches, staff, student-athletes, students and alumni, fans and donors, if we all commit to this, I am confident the results will come.

In closing, I am proud to be a Baylor Bear and believe we will learn and move forward from both our successes and our mistakes. We can be a positive example for others and not allow people to define us or tell us who we are. We will have the courage and the strength to acknowledge any shortcomings and ensure our athletics program is not only successful but held in high regard for how we do it, including working collaboratively with the university.

We will rely on the values that have built this great university for over 170 years and do what is right, not some or most of the time, but all of the time.

My dad, when I was younger, gave me a quote from Vince Lombardi. It talked about perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we will capture excellence. That's just what we're going to do here at Baylor University. A shout out to my mom and dad. I know that they're listening. My brothers, Bruce and George, would kill me if I didn't mention their names. So I say hello to all of them; and, again, thank you to President Garland, to the Board of Regents and to the Baylor community for welcoming my family and I to Waco, Texas. "Sick 'em Bears!"

THE MODERATOR: We will open it up for questions.

Q. Mack, why was Baylor a better job right now than Missouri right now?
MACK RHOADES: Well, thank you for that tough question right to start, Dennis! I thought we were friends! I never looked at it as a comparison. As I mentioned in my remarks I just think this is a wonderful opportunity. Some mistakes have been made. I think Baylor, the University community has done a great job in terms of fact-finding and has implemented certainly a lot of things in place already in terms of moving forward, and I want to come in and help and be part of that process.

Again, I want to create an athletic department that's committed to excellence in all areas, academic achievement, social responsibility, and certainly athletic success.

Q. Mack, how would you like to see the culture of the football program change? What's your plan, your ideal there?
MACK RHOADES: Well, I think I want a culture where we understand that there is no one entity, anything bigger than Baylor University itself. In a culture that is of people that certainly care about our student-athletes, a culture -- and I think there was that culture, no doubt, but a culture where there is expectations and I think, you know, those expectations certainly start, you know, by me, from me. A commitment to excellence in everything we do.

There are just certain things that we won't tolerate and moving forward, you know, everybody will be on that same page. And when I say everybody, that's the University, that's the athletics department, that's our coaches our student-athletes, everyone.

Q. Were there cultural things at the University of Missouri as far as issues with student unrest and things like that that you inherited that proved to be too difficult to handle? How do the cultures differ between the two universities and now jobs that you have taken?
MACK RHOADES: Well, let me answer the last piece of that question or part of that question first. I'm not sure how they compare because, again, I have not been on the Baylor campus and certainly have done a lot of fact-finding and reading and those things.

As to the University of Missouri, I'm proud of what we accomplished over the fifteen months and I think that the University of Missouri, the athletics program is in a much better place than it was fifteen months ago. I think certainly the culture has changed. We've created a culture within that athletic department of we're going to care about people. People come first. We'll never do anything at the expense of people and we will create that same type of Christian culture here at Baylor University.

Q. Mack, could you take us through the conversation you had with Barry Odom?
MACK RHOADES: Tough conversation. I love Barry Odom. He is first and foremost a wonderful human being and I think he's going to be a heck of a head football coach. That was hard. It was emotional for both of us. We care about one another. He understands. He got it. At the end of the day he wanted what was best for my family and I, and we will remain friends and there will be no bigger fan of Barry Odom than I.

Q. Hope that you and President Garland can address this. Did you understand fully what you're walking into? Bob Bowlsby talked about today the nine other Presidents still have pretty serious questions about what they expect to hear tomorrow with the report that's going to be given and I'm sure the other ADs still have a lot of other questions as well. Do you feel like you have your finger on the pulse of what the attitude toward Baylor is from your pierce?
MACK RHOADES: At this point in time I think I do as best I can. Again, haven't had a lot of conversations in terms of athletic directors in the league, et cetera, and, you know, my message to them is Baylor University is going to do the right thing. It's done the right thing. Again, it brought in an independent third party to investigate, to look at what has transpired, and I think in a very short time aggressively Baylor has done a wonderful job in terms of beginning to implement new processes. I think they've done that certainly with any of the people that have been hurt on their mind, empathetic to those, and we will certainly continue that.

DR. DAVID GARLAND: I think Mack answered that extremely well. I also came in after things had happened, and we are making extraordinary progress and being extremely open with the Big XII as well as the NCAA. We're on our way to fix those problems.

Q. Mack, when you start on August 15th, what is your first priority, first thing you would like to do to accomplish?
MACK RHOADES: I think, number one, again, is establishing relationships, and that's a broad umbrella. So getting to happen the staff and I'll make sure, you know, that I will spend 30 minutes with every staff member we have and we will begin that process on August 15th in terms of getting to know them and the people and who they are and their families. That's really important to me. We will do the same with the head coaches, with the donors. I've already, again, have been able to talk or trade voice messages with all the head coaches and certainly the senior staff and some of our donors, Board of Regents, and so we will continue with that.

We will start right away in terms of looking at what are the new processes that have been put in place up to this point in time and certainly we will work with the University, the action team in terms of implementation of those. Again, just begin to create a new culture.

Q. Obviously, as you go into this first year, the football coaching hire is going to be very highly scrutinized in your first few months. What kind of thoughts do you have going into evaluating things as they are? You've been through this process the last couple of years. What's going to be important there for you, and how quickly will you get started on that part of it?
MACK RHOADES: Well, first let me say this: I've got unbelievable respect and administration for Coach Grobe and we have had a chance to visit on the phone and wanted to meet in person prior to this press conference and that didn't happen because of some delayed flight times; but he, in just a very short time, has brought stability. He has certainly, I think, done a great job in terms of beginning to earn the trust of some of our student-athletes, the staff. And I look forward to working with him. He's a man of great integrity, and to your question, we will begin to evaluate, you know, immediately. I'm not one to prejudge.

I will be open minded. We will look to see how the season goes. We will begin to identify the process, potential candidates if need be. But we will have things lined up by the time the season ends if need be. Again, I go back to, you know, Coach Grobe right now is our head football coach and I'm going to get into the trenches and roll up my sleeves and work with him.

Q. President Garland, have you all spoken with the NCAA recently, and how confident are you that the NCAA will not issue sanctions against the Baylor football team?
DR. DAVID GARLAND: I can't answer for the NCAA, but we have communicated openly with them. We visited with them immediately. That was before I became President. We are willing to be open, and I can't answer for what they're going to do.

Q. I was curious, you have lots of holdovers on the football staff from the previous regime. How open have your new bosses been to discussing the particulars of who did what? I know a little of that came up with Commissioner Bowlsby in his speaking and I was curious what you found out and have been able to access.
MACK RHOADES: Right now at that point in time there has been a lot to learn and fact-finding and I think that's something they'll need to do right away and begin to address that. I go back to we're going to do the right thing.

Q. Your thoughts on, obviously Bruce addressed it, but are you going to talk to all the assistant coaches? How do you evaluate that situation? Do you hire an on-campus recruiting coordinator who is answering directly to you to try to stop the bleeding, I guess, in terms of recruiting?
MACK RHOADES: Well, I think one, I'm going to talk to all of our staff, including all of our assistant coaches in terms of expectations and how we're going to work and work together. I think for that, for the existing staff, the best thing that they can do is do everything they can to put our student-athletes in a place to succeed. They will know that and they will understand that. At the appropriate time, you know, we will certainly evaluate as to where we head in the future.

Q. You talked generally about processes that are being implemented. Is there anything specifically that you're positive about or you've liked since you stepped on campus or been hired?
MACK RHOADES: I think certainly the collaboration with Patty Crawford and the Title IX office and look forward to meeting Patty and working with her. But some of the implementation of the Title IX processes, and it starts with education, for everyone. Then it starts, you know, in terms of what are the processes if something happens? How do we report it? How do we correct it immediately? So those things are underway and I'm looking forward to being a part of that.

Q. Do you anticipate any kind of timeline specifically for implementation of any new programs, anything that you could talk about or announce today directly in the wake of the scandal?
MACK RHOADES: Again, as soon as possible. I've not even stepped foot in Waco or on the campus and, you know, up until August 15th, I will certainly spend all my evenings working on Baylor Athletics and will begin to think about where do we head in terms of the future. But those are things we need to get done as soon as possible.

Q. As it pertains to the assistant coaches that remain on the staff from the previous regime, given their involvement in everything that happened as per the Pepper Hamilton report, how comfortable are you for that staff remaining on for at least another season and potentially continuing the culture that existed previously?
MACK RHOADES: At this point in time, I'm comfortable because I think there's been a lot of fact-finding. The University was extremely thorough and obviously the University made that decision to keep them on staff; and, again, when I get to Waco we will certainly have a conversation in terms of expectations and how we will conduct business moving forward.

Q. Are you worried about Big XII sanctions that they might levy against Baylor and even something as wildly drastic as expulsion from the league?
DR. DAVID GARLAND: Now I'm worried if you think that's what might happen. No, I think we're going to present. We're going to be open. We have confidence that we have done the right things and that we're going to continue to do the right things. So we're trying to be as transparent as possible with the other presidents and I don't anticipate that happening.

Q. You've been at three other places. What did you learn from those stops, and how do you see the role of the Athletic Director? What do you see in that?
MACK RHOADES: Probably what I learned most of those three stops, I think, again, I alluded to it in my remarks, you do, you win with people. Nothing overcomes great people.

Then, I think, developing a culture of excellence, making sure that there is an understanding that it's communicated that everybody understands throughout the department and everybody! Not just certain coaches, not just certain staff members, but everybody. In terms of, here is expectations, here is how we're going to work, here is how we're going to care for one another, here is our vision. We're going to go locked arm-in-arm and go get it done. There has to be great, great collaboration with the University as well.

Then I think what I've learned is all three of those places are different, so you have to be open to that as well. Maybe something that was great at Akron wasn't necessarily a best fit for Houston, and so that's part of the challenge of somebody coming in new and we will get that figured out.

Q. Your predecessor came in in the wake of a scandal, was charged with cleaning that up, resigned in an unprecedented scandal. From an Athletic Director's viewpoint, did that give you pause about this culture that it was larger than the power of an Athletic Director to fix?
MACK RHOADES: It's certainly a fair question. I don't know that it gave me any pause. I look at it as an opportunity. Sexual violence is a topic throughout our country and it certainly happens on other campuses, and this is an opportunity for Baylor University and certainly the Athletics Department to be a leader in how we deal and handle sexual violence. I've got three unbelievably beautiful daughters that I love, and if you ask what's your motivation, there's my motivation.

THE MODERATOR: Thank y'all very much for coming.

DR. DAVID GARLAND: Thank you.

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