After ACU’s game against Texas Tech, a charter bus full of football players and coaches got slammed at Marsha Sharp and University by a 19-year-old who decided traffic laws — and sobriety — were optional. The bus got shoved into another car, four people were hospitalized, and Head Coach Keith Patterson lost his Chick-fil-A sandwich mid-bite.
Miraculously, everyone walked away with only minor injuries: a concussion scare, bruises, maybe some ribs checked, but no lasting damage. Patterson called it “the most violent, loudest thing I’ve ever heard” — which, in Lubbock, is saying a lot when you factor in Cotton Fest and Raider Alley.
The driver, Parker Young, was promptly arrested for DWI and bonded out two days later, because apparently crashing into a police-escorted team bus isn’t considered a career-ending move in Texas. Patterson, showing far more grace than most, said he forgives the kid and hopes it’s “life-altering.” Translation: please let him learn something from this besides how to make bail.
And despite the wreck, Tech and ACU say nothing about their travel policies will change. Police escorts will still accompany buses, as if that helped in the first place.
In Lubbock, you can plan for blitzes and broken plays — but not for a drunk kid in a pickup truck with worse timing than Tech’s special teams.
