Four Players Among 17 Arrested at T.C.U.
By Paul Myerberg // Feb 15, 2012
Four football players, including all-American linebacker Tanner Brock, are among the 17 T.C.U. students arrested following a six-month investigation by Forth Worth and university police into the distribution of illegal narcotics. All 17 of the students are “separated” from the university, according to T.C.U. chancellor Victor Boschini Jr., and will be immediately expelled if found guilty of the drug charges, which feature the sale of marijuana, cocaine, acid, ecstacy and prescription drugs. For the university, it’s been a whirlwind 24 hours – first a memorable high, followed by a low point perhaps unparalleled in school history. “There are days people want to be a football coach,” said Gary Patterson. “But today is not one of those days.”
A day ago, T.C.U. was reveling in the release of the Big 12’s upcoming conference schedule, one that made official its move from the Mountain West to one of the nation’s premier football conferences. A day later, the university is searching for answers, wondering how such wide-ranging illegal activities were occurring within its campus.
On a football basis, the program will lose four players considered key to the Horned Frogs’ immediate success in the Big 12. One is Brock, a former all-American who missed nearly all of last season following an ankle injury. In 2010, Brock, then a sophomore, led the Horned Frogs with 106 tackles, 26 more than his next-closest competitor.
Brock was considered the linchpin of a defense that lost several key contributors following the program’s Rose Bowl victory to cap the 2010 season. But Brock aggravated a lingering ankle injury in the season opener against Baylor, and T.C.U. sidelined him for the remainder of the season after Brock showed little improvement over the ensuing two weeks.
Defensive tackle D.J. Yendrey, a senior-to-be, earned honorable mention all-Mountain West honors following each of the last two seasons. Devin Johnson, another would-be senior, started at strong safety over the second half of last season. Offensive tackle Ty Horn was a reserve on the strong side, and a potential starter this fall following senior Robert Deck’s graduation.
Two clear starters in Brock and Yendrey; Brock, should he get back to 100 percent, was again an all-American candidate. Both were vital figures on the T.C.U. defense, and Brock in particular was viewed as a potential difference-maker as T.C.U. prepared for the Big 12’s potent offensive attacks. If not a starter, Johnson would have been a valuable reserve along the back end of the T.C.U. defense.
All are off the team, and the chance that any one of the quartet again lines up for the Horned Frogs is nearly impossibly slim. The fact that each has been implicated by a long-term investigation by local law enforcement – and, according to the police report, students were selling drugs to undercover officers – speaks to the magnitude of their alleged transgressions. “All of those arrested were drug dealers,” said university police chief Steven McGee.
“Our program is respected nationally for its strong ethics and for that reason the players arrested today were separated from T.C.U. by the university,” said Patterson. “I believe strongly that young people’s lives are more important than wins or losses.”
Clearly, this is not the way the football program wanted to begin its tenure in the Big 12 – and obviously, this is terribly devastating news for the university as a whole. Boschini, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, said that the arrests “have changed the life of everyone at T.C.U.” The university, he said, “has never before experienced a magnitude of student arrests such as this.”
Said Patterson: “As I heard the news this morning, I was first shocked, then hurt and now I’m mad.” He also called the arrests part of the bigger picture, with drug use “a global issue that we all have to address.”
But Patterson’s statement made clear his tolerance, or lack thereof, for those who fail to adhere to the rules laid before them as members of his football program. “Under my watch, drugs and drug use by T.C.U.’s student-athletes will not be tolerated by me or any member of my coaching staff. Period.”
Tags: Big 12, D.J. Yendrey, Devin Johnson, Gary Patterson, T.C.U., Tanner Brock, Ty Horn
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What sort of drugs? Pot or steroids or heroine? Not that it matters in Texas: life imprisonment awaits.
Marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, and lots of prescription drugs like hydrocodone, xanax, etc. per local news reports.
Wow. What possible motivation could a guy like Brock (or really any scholar-athlete for that matter) have to sell drugs?
The only good news about this story is that at least Patterson didn’t pussy-foot around. Off the team, the end; no cover-ups, no wagon-circling, no “we’re going to wait and see how the investigation developes.”
Other coaches – take note.
I guess, on a second reading, the decision was made by the university itself when it kicked them out, and not Patterson.
Point is the same. Other universities – take note.
Having read the arrest warrants for some of the players, the university had no choice but to suspend those involved. They were drug dealers – plain and simple. One of the affidavits indicates an estimated 80% of the squad used illegal drugs.
One quote from the Fort Worth Police Chief caught my attention – more arrests are ” a definite possibility.”
Ouch.
Yikes. Paul, good thing you hadn’t started the Countdown yet…
I honestly don’t believe this news should be that surprising. (albeit that football players were also involved might be out of the norm… then again, maybe not.)
I’d bet that almost every university, nation-wide, could find an illegal drug ring going on within its walls if they looked hard enough. It’s sad, but with a large enrollment of ‘thrill-seeking, partying, immature’ students, the drug business flourishes.
It’s been years since I went to college, and even back then, there was the occasional busted drug operation (or forgery ring) going on thru a fraternity or dorm.
It’s sad, but that’s just life. — Don’t expect universities to NOT mirror society in general. The criminal element thrives everywhere. Colleges aren’t immune. Somebody has to supply the drugs that get those students wasted.
EVERY institution would discover the same problem if they investigated hard enough. I have no doubt.
The “every university does it” line is so, so, so old. And so untrue.
Every time a university gets put on probation, we hear every university does it.
Now when a bunch of football playing drug dealers are caught you say every university does it. Give me a break. That just redefines weak.
“the every univ does it line is so so so old, and so untrue…” — HARDLY.
I didn’t say every university has ‘fooball playing’ drug dealers. I said I can almost guarantee that every univ HAS some sort of on-campus drug dealer/problem.
Not making excuses. Fact of our society. I don’t think it’s good. But can you honestly believe that a 20,000 person campus would not have ONE person selling illicit drugs? That’s naive to think otherwise. Would you believe that our high schools are immune from such problems too?
I wish I could believe that, but that’s not the world we live in. Even rural america high schools have problems with drugs. There is no magical way to keep them from continuing on to college. Universities can’t weed out kids that have a desire for recreational drugs. It happens. Drugs get sold.
Don’t think that can be denied….