It’s been three days since TCU lost 40-33 to cross-town Rival SMU -- their first lost to the Mustangs since 2005 -- and Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson is still steaming over what he felt was 1) a poorly officiated game and 2) some condescending comments made by SMU coach June Jones after the game.
According to Patterson, TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte said C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky called, acknowledged that the game was poorly officiated and that the conference would make a statement on the game.
That statement, obviously, hasn’t come yet.
“The key to it is I’d be quiet about it if I thought the people in charge of the officiating group came out and said it wasn’t very good. But, they didn’t,” Patterson said of the officiating. “I have a hard time with people that don’t admit they made mistakes. I’ve got to do it all the time. When you’re just going to be quiet about it and you think it’s just all going to go away, it’s not going to go away.”
Just wait ‘til you get into the Big East, Gary.
What is going away, though, is TCU’s apparent hospitality toward SMU. Patterson ranted over a comment made by Jones after the game Saturday in which he stated TCU hadn’t changed over the years, helping to prepare SMU for the win.
That didn’t sit well with Patterson.
“All we’ve ever tried to do here at TCU is help SMU. At some point in time we were going to get beat by them, so we got beat by them,” Patterson said. “We’ve helped them, let them come over and talked to them about how we do things academically, how we do things at the stadium, how we do everything to try to make their program better and their way of thanking us for that is to cut us down.
“They shouldn’t ask me at SMU about going into a conference, they shouldn’t ask me about how they play, they shouldn’t ask me about their players, they shouldn’t ask me about anything because they’re not getting any help, period, any more. Because we’ve bent over backwards to make sure that they can improve their program because I believe that’s what you do.”
As the movie “Animal House” once advised, “Forget it. He’s rollin’.”
“To be honest with you, SMU people have been looking down at TCU for a long time over here,” Patterson added. “So, us winning and doing things, the older group of alumni around here have a certain feeling about SMU. I didn’t have that feeling, but I’m getting it.”
Wonder what would ever give him that idea.
At least Patterson will have his chance at revenge next year.
(Quotes courtesy of Associated Press)