college coach.

Replacing the fired Art Briles, who built Baylor into a national power, Grobe is the selected caretaker of a scandal-plagued program disgraced by sexual assaults involving players.

He has a one-season contract, working under an athletic director and school president who were not involved in his hiring. They arrived after he did.

Grobe's official title over a team littered with talent and rated No. 23 in the country in The Associated Press preseason poll, is "acting coach."

In a game where length of contract affords coaches leverage, he has accepted his task.

Grobe comes armed with the work-ethic lessons he learned from Norton and a second role model, College Football Hall of Fame coach Fisher DeBerry, when Grobe was an assistant at the Air Force Academy.

Grobe went on to have asuccessful 19-year career as a head coach, but he had been out of the game for two seasons in May when former Baylor coach and athletic director Grant Teaff beseeched him to help a Bears football program sinking in scandal.

Grobe has no idea what will happen when his 20th head coaching season ends. But he knows Baylor and its fans expect it to play out over the next five months with double-digit victories and a major bowl trip.

This day in August, Grobe is sitting in Baylor's head coach's suite built for Briles. It has been Grobe's home for the last three months, and he has yet to add a single personal touch. His reception area has all the flavor of a generic meeting room at a Holiday Inn.

Even