'University of Texas president William Powers threw his support behind Longhorns coach Mack Brown after James Henry became the seventh player to have a brush with the law in the last four months.

Henry, a redshirt freshman running back, was charged Tuesday with felony counts of retaliation and tampering with physical evidence in connection with an alleged armed robbery in July involving former Texas football player Robert Joseph.

“These incidents are something we take very seriously,” Powers said. “They involve conduct that is unacceptable by citizens at our university and certainly members of our athletic program and football team. I applaud Coach Brown. He took swift action in disciplining these members in each case. I think we do need to hold the players accountable for their conduct off the field.” [As with Donna Shalala, the rhetoric here is bizarre. Obviously Texas hasn't taken, and doesn't take, criminal players seriously. It recruits them. It's a real dirty program. The president sees it as his job to say precisely the opposite of the truth. Instead of saying, the way Montana State now says, that something's very wrong with their program, the president pats the coach on the back for all his good work.]

According to the Austin Police Department, Henry admitted in taped, jailhouse phone calls from Joseph that he assaulted a victim from the alleged robbery and also disposed of a backpack containing items stolen in the alleged incident.

Henry was booked into the Travis County Jail with bond set at $30,000. It wasn’t immediately clear if Henry had yet hired an attorney.

Powers said he, athletic director DeLoss Dodds and Brown “are on the same page.” Powers said the school is taking measures to prevent such behavior and needs to do more.

“Recruiting players with character is a very high priority for the coach,” Powers said. [Again, exactly the opposite of the coach's recruitment strategy.] “We do have programs while the students are here to emphasize that when they are away from home, they need to behave and conduct themselves appropriately. [The language of appropriate behavior. How appropriate.]

“We do drug testing. We have programs on alcohol for the players. So I do think that taking preventative action is extremely important. We can always have more robust efforts.”' [The Texas president is a tool of his sports program. He should be replaced by someone both ethical and able to lead.]