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Baylor reportedly told CB signee Parrish Cobb it wouldn't file his NLI release

There's still a disturbing amount of evidence that the university is still protecting the football program and isn't willing to do the right thing.

By Wescott Eberts
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

On Wednesday, former Baylor president Ken Starr conducted a tone-deaf interview on ESPN's Outside the Lines that was justifiably torn apart by the program and social media at large. On the same day, news emerged that suggested the Bears have not in the past and are not now communicating effectively with 2016 signees and are even attempting to prolong the release process with at least one signee by refusing to file it entirely.

First, Julian Urquidez, the father of offensive tackle signee JP Urquidez, sent out this note on Twitter about the difficulties of getting any response or information from the school about his son's status:

Note that Urquidez, an active member of the military, had to drive from Copperas Cove to Waco (twice) just to receive any level of communication from Baylor and he's upset about it. Understandably so.

But beyond questions of whether the Bears will actually let players out of their National Letters of Intent -- a major concern -- Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports reported on Wednesday that the school was actively trying to keep four-star cornerback signee Parrish Cobb from appealing for his release.

Yup.

The elder Cobb told FOX that they filed to get his son's release from his LOI on Saturday, two days after Briles was let go, and someone in Baylor's compliance office told him they weren't willing to do it.

The elder Cobb is the father of Waco La Vega cornerback Parrish Cobb, in whom the Longhorns may have interest, assuming that he actually gets his release. But it's not even about the release at the moment -- it's about the fact that Baylor won't consent to him filing his release.

Clarifications from the elder Cobb didn't make things look any better for Baylor:

And while Baylor has a 30-day deadline to deal with such requests, the Cobb family informed new head coach Jim Grobe and other assistants after an in-person meeting that his son wants to look at other schools. Instead of expediting the process by admitting that signees like Cobb deserve the chance to go elsewhere due to the betrayal that happened at the hands of former head coach Art Briles and a staff that somehow remains intact, the Bears are clearly trying to do everything possible to limit the damage to the 2016 signing class by delaying the release process.

Now the Cobb family doesn't think the release will happen from Baylor, even though Grobe told him he would grant them.

On one level, perhaps it's understandable to want to have in-person meetings with prospects prior to granting releases. On every other level, it's reprehensible -- this is the not the time for the university to hold signees hostage after everything else that has happened.

"All I can say is, it's in Baylor's hands now," Collis Cobb told Feldman. "I'm hoping they want to do right by these kids."

Good luck with that, Mr. Cobb.

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