TCU Is Back at It Again With Baseless Claims After a Loss
Back in 2016, the Texas Tech baseball team was accused of splashing water on TCU cheerleaders who were dancing on top of the Red Raiders' dugout. The accusation turned out to be patently false when it was discovered the Texas Tech team was throwing cups of water in the air after a big play, which was commonly known as "watering the tree" during the 2016 season.
This is from my 2016 incident of #Watergate:
As far as we know, no TCU Showgirls were harmed in previous athletic events where dugout tree watering had occurred. However, there is no conclusive evidence that anyone else has a dance squad performing in the opposing team's area.
Tadlock has spoken out on the alleged "The Splashening" incident. "If I needed to apologize, I would. We want to be respectful," he said.
It's my opinion that the Showgirls of TCU did get some splash back from Texas Tech watering their trees, but there was no malicious intent in the alleged splashing.
This problem is easily solved by one of two options.
Option one: Move the Showgirls to a more permanent location, like football and basketball games.
Option two: Splash Zone.
Well, I regret to inform you that TCU is back at it again, and this time it's TCU's football team making wild claims after SMU beat them over the weekend.
To set the stage, SMU beat TCU in a football game in Fort Worth inside TCU's home stadium. The game between TCU and SMU is a rivalry that features a trophy called the Iron Skillet.
After TCU lost the game 42-34, SMU decided to plant the SMU flag on the field. This is a moderately common occurrence, but TCU took exception and instigated a scuffle. Following said scuffle, TCU Head Coach Gary Patterson claimed an SMU player struck a TCU coach with a helmet and that the flag planting was a preplanned event.
Both of Patterson's claims cannot be substantiated. Just baseless claims.
"While Coach Patterson acknowledged that his postgame claim cannot be substantiated, he accused our program, multiple times, of planning to plant our flag on the field following our win. This is a complete fabrication," SMU Athletics Director Rick Hart said in a statement. "I can state unequivocally that there was no such plan."
"This activity was spontaneous and borne out of emotion," Hart said. "To suggest otherwise is irresponsible and offensive. I will not allow Coach Dykes, our program or our student-athletes to be unjustifiably attacked. Sonny is a tremendous leader and a man of great integrity. There is no better leader of our football program. He and our entire team have my full support. We appreciate our rivalry with TCU and wish them the best the rest of this season.”
Sonny Dykes mentioned the flag-planting in the postgame and apologized to TCU for the incident.
Gary Patterson is way out of line here. First of all, unless you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a helmet was used in an attack on a coach, you shouldn't lob those claims at a press conference. That's serious stuff. As far as the flag planting goes, so what if they planned it? That makes it worse for Patterson. SMU, a group of 5 programs, was so confident that they would beat TCU, a Power 5 program, that they had an entire film crew prepared for a post-game flag planting?
Get the heck out of here, Patterson. Get all the way out. And don't target receivers next time your team is in Lubbock.