Baylor hires the steady Jim Grobe as acting head coach

Baylor is filling the void left by its firing of former head coach Art Briles by thinking well outside the box. A report from 247Sports broke the news that the school would hire former Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe as interim head coach, and the school did announce Grobe's hiring early Monday evening, terming him "acting head coach."

The statement from Grobe in Baylor's announcement, which stresses his teams' "well-earned reputation for disciplined play" and his time on the American Football Coaches Association's ethics committee, includes a rarely seen modifier of "winning is important."

"It is an honor for me to have the opportunity to join the Baylor football program during this important time. I am looking forward to getting to know and working with the coaches and players in the coming days, and I have great respect for Baylor as an institution and its long-standing heritage.

"As a coach, winning is important. At the same time, I want to assure the Baylor family that every decision we will make in this football program will be made with Baylor University, her students and our student-athletes in mind."

Still, the move comes as a surprise, given that Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett was considered the leader to take the position. Yahoo's Pat Forde first reported that Bennett would become interim head coach last Thursday, and other media reports suggested that Bennett being promoted was likely.

But though Bennett was both tenured within the Baylor program and not of the Baylor program in the same way that offensive coordinator Kendal Briles -- Art's son -- or other assistants are, his comments on former Baylor defensive end Sam Ukwuachu, who was convicted of sexual assault in August 2015, were sure to draw sharp criticism if he had been promoted. Bennett attributed Ukwuachu's absence from the team as a transfer in 2014 to "some issues," and told a radio station was "expected" to return to the team in 2015, prior to Ukwuachu standing trial.

Grobe, on the other hand, has no such known issues with off-the-field problems. And he was a pretty good coach for a while at Wake.

His tenure was one of the finest in the school's history, peaking with an ACC title and an Orange Bowl berth in 2006 that netted Grobe commendation as the unanimous ACC Coach of the Year. The Demon Deacons never won 10 games in any other year in Grobe's time in Winston-Salem, but they never had before, either. The long, slow downturn leading to Grobe's resignation in 2013 might be more attributible to the size of the mountain the program had to climb in a conference with powers like Florida State, Clemson and Miami than any failings of his own doing.

And, besides, Baylor needs to right its ship far more than it needs to win games right now. The Bears' 2017 recruiting class has shrunk by more than half since last Thursday, so there are obviously some football considerations, but Grobe seems like a smart choice of high-character outsider, given that Baylor's initial plans seemed to be to go with someone from inside the same system that had failed.

Uproxx writer and former SB Nation contributor (and Blogger So Dear editor) Martin Rickman gave Grobe and Baylor's reported hiring of him a big thumbs-up on Twitter, and few would know better about Grobe than Rickman.

no idea what he'd be able to do at baylor but he won't make things worse while he's there & is about as good a guy as there is in coaching

— martin rickman (@martinrickman) May 30, 2016

SB Nation's Baylor blog, Our Daily Bears, thinks the interim is likely around for only a short while, comparing him to former Arkansas coach John L. Smith, who took over for the fired Bobby Petrino in April 2012.

This is probably about the best solution Baylor could find in the time we had to find it. Make no mistake about what this hire means -- unless something crazy happens, Jim Grobe is not the long-term answer for Baylor as a head coach. But he can be a caretaker for a program in turmoil, since his ethics are unchallenged, and he's generally considered to be one of the best people in CFB.

247Sports reports that the rest of Baylor's questionable staff is expected to stay on through the 2016 season, which means Grobe is probably a true interim coach, expected only to steer the ship until the end of the fall.

And athletic director Ian McCaw, who was reportedly involved in Grobe's hiring and is quoted in the Baylor release announcing it, is reportedly stepping down, though the university only sanctioned him and placed him on probation on Thursday.

A seven-month stint of work by Grobe followed by an amiable departure would allow the university to make a cleaner break from its current staff when searching for a next permanent head coach, and to hire from an applicant pool much larger than the tiny one that exists for college football coaches in late May. And Baylor can take its time finding an athletic director it can trust to lead that hiring process.