TCU lost a hard-fought battle over the weekend, falling to Baylor in a classic 41-38 shootout. During the game, Baylor safety Ahmad Dixon was ejected over a targeting call after he hit TCU wide receiver Trevone Boykin. TCU head coach Gary Patterson was livid with the way Dixon and Baylor head coach Art Briles handled the situation.
“Number six [Dixon] beats a guy up at the beginning of the season and doesn’t get suspended,” Patterson said in his postgame press conference, via Eye on College Football. “He takes a shot and I want him kicked out. The head coach came across the field to me. I’ve got a guy [Dixon] who’s laughing into the camera on the sideline. I’ve got a guy [Trevone Boykin] that can’t come into the game for a play. That’s not what I call class.”
Dixon was arrested in September and charged with misdemeanor assault. The charges are still pending. Patterson and Briles had a heated exchange on the field after Dixon gestured to the TCU crowd following his ejection.
“To come across the field to me … he’s picking on the wrong guy,” Patterson said. “You’re not going to come across to me. You can go correct your player, not me. If [Briles] has a problem with me, he can come to where I live,” said Patterson. “I have respect for him and I have respect for his program, but I’m not going to teach my guys that and that guy [Dixon] has been doing that for four years. The bottom line to it is, it wasn’t funny.”
Patterson’s biggest issue seemed to be that Dixon was not rushed off the field after he had been given the boot.
“[Briles] can go correct his player because nobody said anything to him,” Patterson added. “I watched. I had to get the official to go get him because they let him stand on the sideline. If I didn’t say anything, they would have let him stand there the whole time. That isn’t cool. If that’s what class is, I don’t want to be it.”
I’m sure the sting of losing the most important game of the season added to Patterson’s frustration. Patterson has a history of airing out his grievances in public after losses, though he has a point about Dixon standing on the sideline and gesturing to the crowd. A player who has been ejected should leave as quickly as possible.
