TCU's Gary Patterson says assistant coach got concussed in fracas after SMU's win over Horned Frogs
TCU coach Gary Patterson doesn't approve of SMU's celebrations following the Mustangs' upset win over the Horned Frogs on Saturday.
SMU beat TCU, 42-34, in their annual Dallas-Fort Worth battle for the iron skillet trophy. After the game, SMU players grabbed a school flag and ran over to the midfield logo at TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium. A fracas ensued as TCU players didn't take too kindly to the attempted flag-planting by SMU wide receiver Rashee Rice.
Oh wow.
SMU WR Rashee Rice, the one fueled the rivalry with his comments this week, immediately takes the SMU flag to midfield after SMU’s 42-34 win over TCU. A small scuffle ensues. pic.twitter.com/kO0xxpktv9— Joseph Hoyt (@JoeJHoyt) September 25, 2021
After the game, Patterson said that special assistant Jerry Kill had been knocked over in the incident and accused an SMU player of hitting him with a helmet. Kill, a longtime college coach and former head coach at Minnesota, has epilepsy. The diagnosis led to him stepping down as the Gophers coach in 2015.
This *appears* to be the point where Jerry Kill is knocked down. This is from the video I took yesterday. You can see a TCU coach in white fall down between the C and the U on the 45-yard line. Doesn’t look like anyone from SMU is around him. pic.twitter.com/0KvKo05gUg
— Joseph Hoyt (@JoeJHoyt) September 26, 2021
Tuesday, Patterson said that Kill had been diagnosed with a concussion, though he claimed he was unsure exactly how Kill had gotten knocked over. Whether or not Kill was knocked over by a TCU or an SMU player wasn't important, Patterson said Tuesday, because he wouldn't have been hit had SMU not tried to plant the flag in the first place.
From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
“A guy [Kill] got hurt. Why I’m upset about it, a guy got hurt that things like that usually cause seizures. A guy got hurt. He got pushed down by our kids once on film in the middle of it and he got hit because I’ve got the proof to show it.
“At the end of the day, whether it’s SMU, TCU, I can’t substantiate it. But at the end of the day it wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have the flag situation.”
Figuring out who hit Kill was very important to Patterson in the moments after the game, however. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, SMU said it was upset with Patterson's initial allegations and that TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati had promised that Patterson would recant his accusation that an SMU player had knocked Kill over.
Patterson said Tuesday that he felt the flag-planting was premeditated because SMU had videographers filming near midfield. SMU denied that accusation in its statement as well.
The win was SMU’s second in a row and the first time since 2011 that the Mustangs had beaten TCU on the road. The win also marked SMU’s first back-to-back wins in the series since 1992 and 1993. TCU leads the series 51-42-7 and had won 20 of 24 games between those two sets of consecutive victories by SMU.
