{"id":19545,"date":"2017-02-02T10:55:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T16:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/?p=19545"},"modified":"2017-02-02T10:55:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T16:55:14","slug":"read-matt-rhules-refreshing-baylor-pitch-to-recruits-and-their-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2017\/02\/read-matt-rhules-refreshing-baylor-pitch-to-recruits-and-their-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Read Matt Rhule’s refreshing Baylor pitch to recruits and their families"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Coach<\/p>\n

You’ve likely already seen the headlines following\u00a0college football’s National Signing Day yesterday, as almost every national media outlet emphasized Baylor head coach Matt Rhule’s impressive work in putting together his first signing class<\/a> in Waco.<\/p>\n

Starting virtually from nothing, in less than two months\u00a0Rhule built a signing class that ranks in the top 40 nationally (Rivals: 34th<\/a>;\u00a0Scout.com: 36th<\/a>;\u00a0ESPN: 39th<\/a>). That he could accomplish such a feat is impressive — but frankly, what was more impressive was the way he went about it.<\/p>\n

“All it has really been for us is telling them about Baylor,” Rhule\u00a0told BaylorBears.com<\/a>. “It’s about this university, and the opportunity you can have to come here and get an elite education. You can have a spirit-filled time while you’re here, you can play great football, and you have a chance to be developed into a pro football player with our coaching staff.”<\/p>\n

[READ\u00a0reaction to Baylor’s recruiting success: USA Today<\/a><\/em> || Sports Illustrated<\/a><\/em> || Fox Sports<\/a> || Dallas Morning News<\/a><\/em> || Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/a><\/em> || Houston Chronicle<\/a><\/em> || Waco Tribune-Herald<\/a><\/em>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rhule also elaborated on why he came to Baylor: “I knew that everything I wanted in a football program is right here. Number one, I want to educate young people. I want to see them graduate. I want to see them change their lives, not just by getting a diploma, but by getting the education that they want… Nine out of every 10 Baylor graduates either has a job or is in graduate school within three months of graduating<\/a>. That’s unheard of in this market. So I can help kids get the education that they deserve. I can help kids go be part of a tremendous campus community, and I can help them impact the community… Athletic excellence, academic excellence, excellence in the community — everything that I wanted to be a part of was here.”<\/p>\n

The Bears’ new coach also hasn’t ignored the negative headlines that have followed Baylor for the last 18 months. “I don\u2019t shy away from what happened here,” he\u00a0told Sports Illustrated<\/a><\/em>. “What I tell people is we\u2019re not only going to fix the problem, we want to be an example of what you can do in the future. If you want to come here, you can be the change, build a legacy not defined by things that happened before you got there.<\/p>\n

“You always want to be tremendously respectful of the victims of sexual assault here,\u201d Rhule added, speaking to Fox Sports<\/a>. “So you don\u2019t want to diminish anything. One woman assaulted is too many. You want to learn from things that went wrong, and make sure we do everything we can in our power to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen again.”<\/p>\n

Amen, Coach Rhule.<\/p>\n

Sic \u2019em, Bears!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve likely already seen the headlines following\u00a0college football’s National Signing Day yesterday, as almost every national media outlet emphasized Baylor head coach Matt Rhule’s impressive work in putting together his first signing class in Waco. Starting virtually from nothing, in less than two months\u00a0Rhule built a signing class that ranks in the top 40 nationally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}