FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Suspended TCU quarterback Casey Pachall is leaving school for the rest of the semester
and enrolling at an inpatient rehabilitation facility.
Coach Gary Patterson made the announcement Tuesday, five days after the junior starter was arrested on suspicion of drunken
driving in his second brush with the law in the past eight months.
Patterson said most of the inpatient programs like the one Pachall will enter are 30 to 60 days. The coach said that would
allow Pachall to re-enroll at TCU next spring.
"Hopefully, what our plan is that he
(Pachall) gets himself right and keeps the door open for us as far as an
opportunity
for him to be able to come back here and enroll in the spring,"
Patterson said. "He would be able to graduate in two semesters,
which is the ultimate goal for us."
Pachall was arrested on suspicion of driving
while intoxicated after running a stop sign near the TCU campus early
last Thursday.
That came eight months after Pachall admitted to police that he
smoked marijuana and failed a team-administered drug test
just two weeks before former linebacker Tanner Brock, his roommate
and teammate then, was arrested in a drug sting with three
other players and other TCU students.
When Pachall's failed drug test was revealed
publicly in a police report just before the start of preseason practice
in August,
the quarterback wasn't suspended. Patterson said then that Pachall
had completed drug and alcohol counseling mandated by the
university.
Pachall threw for 948 yards with 10
touchdowns and one interceptions in TCU's first four games this season.
The suspension
of their second-year starting quarterback comes in the middle of
the Frogs playing their first season in the Big 12 Conference
and facing a difficult schedule the rest of the way.
Filling in for Pachall, redshirt freshman
Trevone Boykin was 23-of-40 passing for 270 yards with a touchdown and
three interceptions
in Saturday's 37-23 loss to Iowa State. That ended the Frogs'
FBS-best 12-game winning streak and knocked them out of the
Top 25.
The Horned Frogs (4-1, 1-1 Big 12) plays at
Baylor (3-1, 0-1) on Saturday, then face Texas Tech and Oklahoma State
before
consecutive games against four ranked teams currently with a
combined record of 17-2. They will have to play at No. 5 West
Virginia, before hosting No. 6 Kansas State, then going to No. 15
Texas and closing the regular season at home against No.13
Oklahoma.
Before the start of fall practice in August, Pachall said he needed to have the same expectations off the field that he did
when he was playing.
"I know I'm not perfect," Pachall said during a one-minute statement at the time. "But I've learned from those mistakes and
I'm still learning. It's a day-to-day process for me of trying to be a better person."
Last season, after replacing TCU's
winningest quarterback Andy Dalton, Pachall set single-season school
records with 2,921
yards passing and 228 completions. He threw 25 TDs with seven
interceptions while the Frogs won 11 games, including a victory
over Louisiana Tech in the Poinsettia Bowl.
While Boykin had been the backup quarterback
the first four games, he was working out at tailback last week before
Pachall's
arrest changed things. Sophomore Matt Brown, Pachall's backup last
season who had been moved to receiver, is now back in the
quarterback mix.