Ugly scuffle overshadows Saturday’s victory
COMMENTARY
Danny Gillham

Saturday’s 27-20 TCU victory should have been highlighted only by Lonta Hobbs’ rushing performance, and the team’s third conference title in five years.

Instead, it came with a dark cloud overshadowing the positives.

With only :02 seconds remaining, a scuffle broke out and forced the game to be called. Senior defensive tackle John Turntine was knocked out in the process, when Memphis freshman Maurice Avery struck him on the head with his helmet.

To make matters worse, all this was shown on the news. Local TV crews were at the game to capture footage of the Frogs possibly winning, and accepting a bid to the AXA Liberty Bowl.

Instead they captured tape of the rumble at Amon Carter Stadium.

I was on the field when all of this took place, and have two observations:

1) It never should have happened.

All the commotion started after Memphis’ last ditch effort to tie the score. Words were exchanged by Tiger wide receivers and Frog defensive backs. It should have ended there, but the officials had run up field and were not back to break up the commotion. Their poor job managing the game allowed the trash talk to turn into blows.

2) TCU is supposed to be better than this.

Head coach Gary Patterson takes pride in his team’s character; you can see it when he talks about his players. That is what made it surprising to see the Frogs lose focus like this in the first place.

“(Men) are going to back up their (other men), that is how it is,” senior quarterback Sean Stilley said. “Sometimes it gets out of hand, but guys are not going to lay down. They are going to go out there and defend their players, their brothers.”

Maybe so, but it doesn’t excuse the fact the players put themselves in the situation. The team was two seconds away from victory, why go through all the other nonsense.

Patterson showed class by going to Memphis’s locker room to apologize, and there is word that consequences will likely be dealt by the teams and Conference USA.

Still, three days after it happened, it’s surprising that the Frogs would allow themselves to get emotionally caught up in the situation. They could have avoided Turntine’s headache and the temporary embarrassment to the team.

Danny Gillham is a sophomore broadcast journalism major from Weatherford.