many questions about its future. And its lingering connections to Briles keep returning.Not long after his firing and contract sett

WACO, Texas -- Baylor returns to the football field tonight, but the fallout from the schools mishandling of sexual assault allegations is far from over.Coach Art Briles, university president Kenneth Starr and other key Baylor leaders are gone, dismissed or having resigned after an investigation found the school ignored or failed to investigate several sexual assault claims. And much more change is expected as the university focuses on reforming its Title IX efforts and implementing 105 recommendations from Pepper Hamilton, the Philadelphia law firm hired last fall to investigate the schools handling of sexual assault complaints made by students.That investigation reported widespread failures in the schools Title IX process and raised concerns about the tone and culture within Baylors football program.And yet, as the Bears kick off the 2016 season Friday night against FCS foe Northwestern State, the football program looks a lot like it did before the disastrous offseason.Though interim coach Jim Grobe will be pacing the sideline, the offense and defense will still be run by Briles nine assistant coaches, two of whom are literally his family. His son, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, and his son-in-law, running backs coach Jeff Lebby, remain on staff.Two other coaches have worked with Briles every day since he took over the program in 2008.Grobe, whose contract only runs through the end of this season, said he kept Briles assistants because they werent accused of any wrongdoing in the Pepper Hamilton report.If you look at what happened at Baylor, we lost our president, our athletics director, our football coach and some operations people, Grobe said. It was dealt with pretty harshly, I think, and why would they stop with the head coach if others did something wrong? Trust me, if I knew anybody else did anything wrong, they wouldnt be here.But now Briles image has been removed from McLane Stadium, where he transformed a Big 12 doormat into a national championship contender. His influence and connections, however, cannot be escaped.Just ask the new coach.Our coaches were very loyal for Art. Our players loved him, Grobe said. He did great things here. And so going forward, I will never diminish anything thats been done here in the past on the field.But its what happened off the field that haunts Baylor and raises so many questions about its future. And its lingering connections to Briles keep returning.Not long after his firing and contract settlement, Briles had a private luncheon for friends and family on July 13 at Torchys Tacos, a restaurant just a few blocks from Baylors campus. Current and former Baylor players attended, as did the assistant coaches.Briles was mingling and dining with his former staff and starting quarterback less than a month after his attorneys accused the school of making him the scapegoat for its scandal. Hes still a co-defendant, with Baylor, in a federal civil lawsuit filed by a former Baylor student. Briles might have been paid $15 million to $20 million to go away, but his ties to the school still linger.Grobe, who didnt attend the lunch, didnt object to the former coach meeting with players and coaches.But still the question lingers:Can Baylors culture change even if the key football leaders are mostly the same? The schools interim president, David Garland, seems to believe so, saying the coaches are honorable men who would benefit from education and support through a better Title IX program.When Grobe was hired, deputy athletic director Todd Patulski said: I really relied on our Board of Regents and the report they provided. Ultimately, the directive was to create stability within our coaches and keep them.Thats not what most observers will be watching when Baylors season kicks off, with an expectation that a talented roster will again roll up points and wins all fall.Alison Kiss, executive director of the Clery Center for Security on Campus, whose mission is to work with college communities to create safer campuses through advocacy, education and collaboration, said she believes restoring campus safety and repairing trust in the university begin with transparency, which includes releasing the full Pepper Hamilton report.If youre going to build the trust within your community and your students -- all of your students -- is to be transparent about it, Kiss said. Until thats released, theres going to be a lot of speculation. Theres value in doing that. Youre certainly airing out your dirty laundry, but if youre ever going to change, the one thing we hear from students across the country is they want transparency and fairness. If youre going to build that trust, theres got to be transparency.For Garland it is simpler. Its about the university understanding the priorities need to be changed, even at the expense of football success.I dont think theres any balance, Garland told the Waco Tribune in July. If you have sexual assaults, its unacceptable. I dont care if we go 0-12 -- we cannot have sexual assaults.Baylors season begins today, but these bigger questions remain: Do the school and football program understand the magnitude of the problem? And is the entire Baylor community committed to changing the culture? Dewayne Dedmon Jersey . According the Toronto Star, a knee injury will keep Sundin out of the lineup, which includes former teammates Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi and Curtis Joseph. Mike Bibby Jersey . 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Quick stopped 27 shots in his return from a 24-game injury absence, Jeff Carter scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:55 to play, and the Kings snapped their five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. NAIROBI, Kenya -- Prosecutors in Kenya withdrew doping charges against banned marathon runner Rita Jeptoos former manager on Tuesday, saying they wanted to conduct more investigations.Federico Rosa, an Italian national, had been facing charges that he provided or administered banned substances to Jeptoo and another little-known Kenyan runner, with some of the allegations dating back as far as 2004.Rosa said he had been given back his passport by a court in Nairobi and was free to go. He had been out on bail ahead of Tuesdays court hearing.There is no witnesses. There is nothing against me. There is no case. This is one of the best days of my life, Rosa told The Associated Press in a phone interview.Rosa was freed, but prosecutors said they would investigate further and he could be re-arrested and re-charged.Prosecutors had said that Rosa was complicit in Jeptoos doping in 2014, when he was her manager. Jeptoo, once the leading womens marathon runner in the world, tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test that year. She was initially banned for two years, but her punishmennt was doubled to four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last month.dddddddddddd That CAS ruling also appeared to vindicate Rosa, with the Swiss-based court noting in its findings that Jeptoo had hidden her doping from her management and coaching team at the time.Rosa ended his association with Jeptoo after she failed the doping test.Although Jeptoo was named as a complainant by prosecutors in the Kenyan criminal case, Rosa disputed that his client had ever accused him of involvement in her doping.Charges that Rosa helped administer banned substances to Elijah Kiprono Boit, a former 800-meter runner who competed at the world youth championships in 2001 and 2004, were also dropped. Rosa was accused of helping Boit dope between 2004-08.Rosa represents a number of top Kenyan athletes, including three-time world 1,500-meter champion Asbel Kiprop and Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong. Kiprop attended Tuesdays court hearing in support of Rosa. ' ' '