Nicole Auerbach

USA TODAY Sports

Considering the rash of decommitments, the sweeping sexual assault scandal that cost Art Briles his job and the five-game losing streak at the time, Jalen Pitre understood everyone’s fascination — fascination with, well, him.

By the end of November, the three-star safety was the last and only Baylor commit of the 2017 class. He didn’t know who his coaches would be, only that he’d almost certainly have some new ones once the regular season ended. He didn’t know exactly what the future would look like — except that he would be wearing green and gold.

Pitre never wavered on this point. Baylor had been there for him when he tore his ACL, and he would be there for Baylor, too.

“I've always wanted to go to Baylor,” Pitre told USA TODAY Sports last week, a day after he moved in for the upcoming spring semester. “I definitely loved the coaches when they were here; they were very good coaches. They were welcoming and they just made it feel like home every time I came for a visit for a game. I just felt like it was the right place for me.

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“I tore my ACL (five games into) my junior season, and the coaches at Baylor told me that they were going to stick with me. That really set it for me right there. That really just told me, yeah, it wouldn’t be right to just flake out on somebody or a team like this after I get injured, not when the coaches said that they were still going to be there for me after I get injured. That was a big part of me staying recruited to Baylor.

“A couple of schools did reach out to me and told me stuff like, ‘We've got to wait to see after your season, see how your knee is.’ And that really kind of hit me, too — you never know who’s real and who’s fake.”

After Briles was fired in May after the release of the Pepper Hamilton report on the failings of Baylor leadership in the wide-ranging sexual assault scandal, many of the players who had said they would attend alongside Pitre began to rethink their commitment. Pitre didn’t fault them; he understood other people had to do what’s best for them.

Some of those recruits found new landing spots quickly; for others, it took months. Pitre himself said he was contacted by coaches at other schools, trying to take advantage of the scandal sullying the Baylor football image. But Pitre was firm in his commitment, once again.

The 5-11, 195-pound safety said he thought some of Briles’ former coaching staff would stay on, which didn’t happen. But Pitre said he loves the new coaches, and already feels a strong connection to head coach Matt Rhule, who was hired from Temple in December.

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“Coach Rhule got hired maybe three days — three to five days — before my official visit,” Pitre said. “I came in, sat with him. Me and my family ate breakfast with him. He is a great individual and that we loved him. That made it even better for us. That made it like a win-win situation.

“I feel like Baylor is going to be up there like they used to be. … I think that the coaches that we have now really are good guys and they are ready to install what they need to install and we're going to do something good here at Baylor.”

Since Rhule’s hiring, seven new recruits — mostly three-star guys — have committed to Baylor. Most are from Texas like Pitre, who is from Stafford, about a three-hour drive from Waco. With just a couple of weeks left before national signing day, it’s clear that this Baylor recruiting class will not be among the nation’s best — or even close to it. But the fact that it exists at all during such a turbulent time for the program is a tribute to the coaching staff’s frantic effort, and also to Pitre, a player who prioritized loyalty over taking the easy way out.

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