Jalen Pitre still remembers when it happened.

It was the fifth game of his junior year at Stafford High, a school nestled between southwest Houston suburbs. Pitre quickly changed direction during a punt return, and his knee gave out.

A torn knee ligament ended his season in early October 2015, three months after he committed to Baylor. The Bears' coaching staff, instead of exploring other options, stuck with Pitre during his recovery.

"The coach told me they were going to stick by my side through the whole recovery and just be there for me, waiting for me to get back," Pitre said.

Pitre has returned the favor. In fact, he's the only player left in Baylor's recruiting class.

With the beginning of the signing period approaching in February, the Bears have no other commitments and are starting the process of building a coaching staff that will look for recruits after hiring Matt Rhule on Tuesday morning.

What happens during the next few weeks will have implications beyond National Signing Day in February.

"We have to remember that recruiting is the lifeline of a college football program's success," said Damon Sayles, a national recruiting analyst at Bleacher Report. "That lifeline is extremely short if you don't have athletes."

In November, Baylor interim coach Jim Grobe snapped his fingers to show how quickly the issue can be solved once Baylor finds a permanent head coach. Grobe was hired by the Bears after Art Briles was dismissed in the aftermath of the school's sexual assault scandal.

During the Bears' 6-6 season, which included a six-game winning streak and a six-game losing streak, Baylor hosted recruits during home games and told players to consider Baylor as a future destination. But the Bears weren't sending assistants across the region to visit players during the evaluation period between August and late November.

"I do think that recruiting is basically on hold right now," Grobe said in November. "There's not much we can do until we have a direction as far as the head coach and a staff, but Baylor's a great place."

Stafford coach Ron Counter recalls seeing Baylor offensive coordinator Kendal Briles and assistant coach Tate Wallis on campus. Stafford had two Baylor pledges before receiver Hezekiah Jones (now committed to Texas A&M) changed his mind, leaving only Pitre.

"I haven't seen either one of those guys or talked to those guys that used to come by here," Counter said. "They were regulars. They did a great job of recruiting Hez and Jalen."

The last time the coaches were in Stafford was around the time when news of Baylor's scandal became a national story. The current discussion surrounding Baylor's recruiting is only a portion of the fallout the school has dealt with during the last several months.

During the season, Baylor senior quarterback Seth Russell said he hadn't seen any other team besides Penn State that has gone through a similar situation.

Before the 2012 season, the NCAA severely sanctioned Penn State following the school's child sex abuse scandal. Those sanctions, including a postseason ban, were eventually reduced and lifted.

"Certainly there were some who turned the other way and decided to go the other way, but we also had a number of kids who stayed true to their commitment," said Charlie Fisher, an assistant during the 2012 season and now the head coach at Western Illinois.

In time, Penn State recovered despite dealing with sanctions that Baylor avoided. This season, the first year the Nittany Lions had a full complement of scholarship players, they won the Big Ten Conference and just missed out on the NCAA semifinals under coach James Franklin.

"Everyone's been great to us," Penn State assistant Tim Banks said. "Most of the recruits that we've come into contact with, those guys are excited about Coach Franklin and in the direction the program is headed."

Baylor, like Penn State, will have to deal with its scandal being used against them in recruiting. TCU coach Gary Patterson said inside Texas, the situation will be used against the Bears by schools recruiting against them.

But even Baylor's biggest rival believes the school will be fine once the new head coach is hired. The Bears did just that on Tuesday by hiring Rhule, who went 28-23 in four seasons at Temple.

"It's a good university," Patterson said. "They got a lot of things in place. They have great facilities now. They have all the things they need to. It's not like if this happened to them 25 years ago. It's not the same."

While Rhule is looking for a staff to go out and find its next group of football players, its only recruit is preparing to head to Waco.

Pitre's final season at Stafford ended two rounds before the state finals. In a few weeks, he intends to enroll at Baylor.

About once or twice a week, he talks to Baylor assistant coach Cris Dishman, who told Pitre he might not be there next year and to make the best decision for him and his family. Pitre still plans on enrolling in January.

He thinks about the uncertainty surrounding the coaching staff and what other freshmen will be with on the team with him next fall, but he's excited about remaining committed to the first school that offered him a scholarship and the one that stuck with him.

"It's just taking another step in life and experiencing new things," Pitre said. "I think it's going to be a great step for me."

Comparing classes

How Baylor's 2017 recruiting class stacks up to other local schools