TCU football player Mike Tuaua football player was arrested Monday on a charge of felony robbery. During his weekly session with media on Tuesday, head coach Gary Patterson defended his player while taking a shot Baylor in the process.
Tuaua and teammate Andre Petties-Wilson have both been suspended from the football program for their roles in an incident earlier in the month where they were alleged to have beat up three students and taken a case of beer. Patterson wants everyone to know that, despite what happened, he doesn’t think Tuaua is a bad person.
“I’m not going to let you all say this guy is a bad person,” Patterson said via ESPN. “If he made a mistake, he made a mistake.”
“It’s not even close to what happened south of here.”
The last part of Patterson’s quote is his not-so-subtle reminder of what happened at Baylor.
Last month, Sam Ukwuachu was convicted of sexually assaulting a former Baylor women’s soccer player after transferring to the school in 2013. He was sentenced to 180 days in county jail, received 10 years of felony probation, and will have to do 400 hours of community service.
Baylor came under fire due to a he said/she said battle between Bears head coach Art Briles and Chris Petersen, who was head coach at Boise State when Ukwuachu was dismissed from the program. Petersen alleged Briles was aware of the Ukwuachu’s violent past, which led to his dismissal.
While there is obviously no comparison between the two incidents, Patterson taking a shot at another program when his own is dealing with an incident is going to rub more than a few people the wrong way. I guess he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to jab a Big 12 foe.
