Fisher, Riley's past decisions could keep them from being considered for LSU job

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After a year of sexual misconduct scandals at LSU, many implicating high-profile athletes and athletics officials, university officials are promising that their search for LSU’s next football coach — who will doubtless be the highest-paid public official in Louisiana — will include an examination of the candidate’s record of handling such allegations.
Athletic department spokesman Cody Worsham said a candidate’s history of handling Title IX cases will be one of many “important considerations” in the coaching search.

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One scenario that might test LSU’s commitment to Title IX: hiring Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher, an oft-rumored contender who has denied any interest in the job. LSU athletic director Scott Woodward hired Fisher at Texas A&M in 2017.
Along with several others, Fisher was accused of mishandling a 2013 allegation that Florida State University’s prized quarterback, Jameis Winston, raped a fellow student. Winston, who now plays for the New Orleans Saints, was never criminally charged, though lawsuits and media reports afterward suggested police botched the rape investigation.
In a 2016 lawsuit against Florida State, the accuser said that FSU officials became aware Winston was identified as “a suspect in a violent sexual assault on Jan. 22, 2013,” and called meetings with football officials, including Fisher. None of them notified FSU’s Title IX office, according to the lawsuit.
Fisher later testified he was unaware of the school’s policy on sexual battery, and that he believed he was only required to report information to his superior, USA Today reported.
Nine months after the woman reported the rape, Fisher named Winston FSU’s starting quarterback.
FSU settled the lawsuit in 2016 for $950,000 and agreed to beef up training. The university did not admit to liability.

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Another rumored top contender for the LSU job, Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, defended star player Joe Mixon in 2016 after a video surfaced of Mixon punching a woman in the face.
The incident had occurred in 2014, before the start of Mixon’s freshman season, and Mixon was arrested on misdemeanor charges at the time.
Riley was offensive coordinator at the time, working under then-coach Bob Stoops. Oklahoma suspended Mixon that season, and he entered an Alford plea to misdemeanor assault, in which a defendant accepts responsibility but maintains innocence.
Mixon returned to the team afterward.
Riley defended Mixon amid the controversy, saying that the player was working through the negative publicity.
“It’s been a difficult situation and we’ve tried to handle it the best we can, and Joe’s done a great job of being who he is, being a great teammate, being more worried about all of the other people than he is himself, which is kind of the norm for him,” Riley told reporters.
Riley went on to become Oklahoma’s head coach.  
Asked last week about his potential interest in the LSU job, Riley replied: “You guys know how I feel about this place and this program.” 
The Mixon story is the type of baggage that LSU’s critics are worried about.

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