Despite the lack of a permanent head coach, TCU cheerleaders will be allowed to tumble and perform stunts at this weekend’s Homecoming football game against Army, cheerleading captain Magean Thompson said Wednesday. Coach Jeff Tucker was fired Monday for undisclosed reasons pending an appeal process, temporarily banning the team from stunting at football games.Thompson said the cheerleading squad was granted permission to stunt by associate athletics directors Scott Kull and Jack Hesselbrock. However, the team will not be able to form pyramids, multi-level stunts that are anywhere from two to three people high. Thompson also said that one of the assistant coaches will likely take over during the appeal process.

Tucker said he is pleased that the team’s hard work will pay off.

“I think that it’s great that they’re going to be able to do what we’ve trained them to do,” Tucker said.

It is a significant blow whenever a college cheerleader is placed under show restrictions, he said.

“I think the students are definitely being penalized,” Tucker said. “What some people fail to realize is that college is these student’s retirement. Not many people go into cheerleading as a profession, so this is the pinnacle of their career.”

Although some cheerleaders have threatened to walk away from the squad, Tucker said, the team needs to focus on the rest of the year more than the current situation.

“You don’t cheer for a coach,” Tucker said. “You cheer for a university. Anybody can be replaced.”

Even though the cheerleaders will be allowed to stunt this weekend, Thompson said, she still wants Tucker back.

“He genuinely cares,” she said. “There is a difference between being under a coach that can coach and being under a coach that both coaches and cares.”

Tucker said the first step of the appeal process, which is a mediation process between him and administration, will begin today.

Both Kull and Sharon Barnes, director of employee relations, refused to comment on the planned proceedings of today’s meeting.