The hiring and recruiting practices of Southern Miss head football coach Jay Hopson are under scrutiny this week, days after he attempted and failed to hire disgraced former Baylor coach Art Briles to be his offensive coordinator.



The Briles engagement is not the first time Hopson and his staff acted unilaterally in an attempt to bring someone with a problematic past to campus without informing the school’s leadership.



Last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, Hopson and his staff tried to add junior college transfer Charles West, who had previously been accused of raping two women at knifepoint at his home in separate incidents in 2015. The people were not authorized to speak about the situation publicly because of the sensitivity of the subject.



The sexual assault cases against West fell apart after both women were “having a hard time testifying in front of her attacker,” and declined to testify in a trial,...