I can't help but set some of the record straight on defense and the Big 12 ... you have to understand what is leading into this to understand that a lot of it starts way before the kids get onto a college campus.
If you go to the HS level in Texas, EVERYBODY is running the spread offense and putting all of their best players on offense. HS offense in Texas is really simple ... spread everybody out, identify the defender that sucks, and attack that player over and over and over again. As a result, the balance of offensive to defensive recruits in Texas is a little skewed.
Then, when you get to the games in the Big 12, the one thing that they do probably better than anybody else (and this is stemmed from the transition for many kids from HS to college) is play with tempo to the point that they keep defensive players on the field in positions where not only can they not sub, but lining up and getting defensive calls is a challenge. For example, prior to this week's debacle at Okie Lite, Charlie Strong was getting a ton of credit for how the Texas offense got changed over ... pretty much the credit is driven by the fact that they installed the offense of their freshman QB from HS so that he didn't have to learn anything new.
Specifically as it pertains to TCU and Gary Patterson or even Oklahoma and Bob Stoops, this is a situation where I think with both of them you have situations where you have a convergence of the underlying HS feeder systems (including best players on offense) and needing to reconsider some of their schemes in relation to not only what other teams are running, but what they are able to recruit.
As a bit of an aside to the above, the best way to stop spread teams is to be able to rush 3-4 guys, drop the rest into coverage to flood the passing lanes (forcing teams to go sideways), and being sure tacklers. If you really get down to it, go back the last 2-4 years in the Big 12 and find me elite DL's ... you won't find one and you won't find one that is anywhere close to what Washington has right now
Anybody that understand the defense of Gary Patterson can tell you that it is simplistic in its scheme and is based on execution by its players. It's probably a defense at this point that would work better in the NFL than what he has had at TCU the last few years. Last year, literally every single projected defensive starter had an injury at some point during the year and many of those injuries were season ending injuries. If you go back and look at the defensive output it got better throughout the year. This year the secondary is flat out bad by TCU standards and as a result it gets compromised easily. And against spread teams, if you can't cover and shade your defense to protect against the pass whether it is setting your LBs a little deeper or playing your DBs with more cushion you're in a position where you're likely going to be outnumbered in the run game (anybody that watched the TCU-Oklahoma game could see that easily) and/or giving up easy throws in the passing game.
Moreover, in calling out the 2014 game against Baylor where TCU lost 61-58, it's glossing over the balance of a 12-1 season where 1) the team averaged giving up 19 points per game defensively (which including giving up 61 in a game) and 2) destroyed a very good Ole Miss team in the Peach Bowl by giving up 3 points to them. Specifically in the Baylor game, looking at the numbers shines a bit of a light on how Big 12 offenses can really stretch defenses. In that game, Bryce Petty for Baylor completed only 28 of his 55 catches ... but those 28 completions went for 510 yards. Simply put, once Baylor realized that they couldn't complete their usual short passing game against the TCU defense, they more or less decided to just take shot after shot after shot for the rest of the game (which had also been a staple of many other recent TCU/Baylor games at the time). In doing so, it also softened TCU's run defense allowing Baylor to run 54 times for 272 yards. And while the yardage looked great, the results weren't there because with 11:38 to go in the game TCU was up by 21 points. However, when you run close to 100 plays in a game and are asked to defend that many plays, at some point you break and that's what happened to TCU's defense at that point.
There's a lot that goes into the mess that is Big 12 defenses right now. But the balance of it starts with the allocation of players between offense/defense and how the offensive coaches are able to stretch every rule advantage in their favor as possible whether it be the hurry up to prevent substitutions or getting OL down the field on RPO's. What's going on in the Big 12 right now isn't that dissimilar to some of what went on in the PAC 10 in the 1990's where seemingly every single team had a QB that was really good and if that QB got hot in a game you were in trouble
I can't help but set some of the record straight on defense and the Big 12 ... you have to understand what is leading into this to understand that a lot of it starts way before the kids get onto a college campus.
If you go to the HS level in Texas, EVERYBODY is running the spread offense and putting all of their best players on offense. HS offense in Texas is really simple ... spread everybody out, identify the defender that sucks, and attack that player over and over and over again. As a result, the balance of offensive to defensive recruits in Texas is a little skewed.
Then, when you get to the games in the Big 12, the one thing that they do probably better than anybody else (and this is stemmed from the transition for many kids from HS to college) is play with tempo to the point that they keep defensive players on the field in positions where not only can they not sub, but lining up and getting defensive calls is a challenge. For example, prior to this week's debacle at Okie Lite, Charlie Strong was getting a ton of credit for how the Texas offense got changed over ... pretty much the credit is driven by the fact that they installed the offense of their freshman QB from HS so that he didn't have to learn anything new.
Specifically as it pertains to TCU and Gary Patterson or even Oklahoma and Bob Stoops, this is a situation where I think with both of them you have situations where you have a convergence of the underlying HS feeder systems (including best players on offense) and needing to reconsider some of their schemes in relation to not only what other teams are running, but what they are able to recruit.
As a bit of an aside to the above, the best way to stop spread teams is to be able to rush 3-4 guys, drop the rest into coverage to flood the passing lanes (forcing teams to go sideways), and being sure tacklers. If you really get down to it, go back the last 2-4 years in the Big 12 and find me elite DL's ... you won't find one and you won't find one that is anywhere close to what Washington has right now
Anybody that understand the defense of Gary Patterson can tell you that it is simplistic in its scheme and is based on execution by its players. It's probably a defense at this point that would work better in the NFL than what he has had at TCU the last few years. Last year, literally every single projected defensive starter had an injury at some point during the year and many of those injuries were season ending injuries. If you go back and look at the defensive output it got better throughout the year. This year the secondary is flat out bad by TCU standards and as a result it gets compromised easily. And against spread teams, if you can't cover and shade your defense to protect against the pass whether it is setting your LBs a little deeper or playing your DBs with more cushion you're in a position where you're likely going to be outnumbered in the run game (anybody that watched the TCU-Oklahoma game could see that easily) and/or giving up easy throws in the passing game.
Moreover, in calling out the 2014 game against Baylor where TCU lost 61-58, it's glossing over the balance of a 12-1 season where 1) the team averaged giving up 19 points per game defensively (which including giving up 61 in a game) and 2) destroyed a very good Ole Miss team in the Peach Bowl by giving up 3 points to them. Specifically in the Baylor game, looking at the numbers shines a bit of a light on how Big 12 offenses can really stretch defenses. In that game, Bryce Petty for Baylor completed only 28 of his 55 catches ... but those 28 completions went for 510 yards. Simply put, once Baylor realized that they couldn't complete their usual short passing game against the TCU defense, they more or less decided to just take shot after shot after shot for the rest of the game (which had also been a staple of many other recent TCU/Baylor games at the time). In doing so, it also softened TCU's run defense allowing Baylor to run 54 times for 272 yards. And while the yardage looked great, the results weren't there because with 11:38 to go in the game TCU was up by 21 points. However, when you run close to 100 plays in a game and are asked to defend that many plays, at some point you break and that's what happened to TCU's defense at that point.
There's a lot that goes into the mess that is Big 12 defenses right now. But the balance of it starts with the allocation of players between offense/defense and how the offensive coaches are able to stretch every rule advantage in their favor as possible whether it be the hurry up to prevent substitutions or getting OL down the field on RPO's. What's going on in the Big 12 right now isn't that dissimilar to some of what went on in the PAC 10 in the 1990's where seemingly every single team had a QB that was really good and if that QB got hot in a game you were in trouble
Good post, but could you elaborate on some of the finer points a bit?
Good post, but could you elaborate on some of the finer points a bit?
Gary Patterson From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sport(s) Football Current position Title Head coach Team TCU Conference Big 12 Record 146–49 Annual salary $4.75 Million[1] Biographical details Born February 13, 1960 (age 56) Rozel, Kansas Alma mater Kansas State University Playing career 1978–1979 Dodge City CC 1980–1981 Kansas State Position(s) Safety, linebacker Coaching career (HC unless noted) 1982 Kansas State (GA) 1983–1984 Tennessee Tech (LB) 1986 UC Davis (LB) 1987 Cal Lutheran (DC) 1988 Pittsburg State (LB) 1989–1991 Sonoma State (DC) 1992 Oregon Lightning Bolts 1992–1994 Utah State (DB) 1995 Navy (DB) 1996–1997 New Mexico (DC/S) 1998–2000 TCU (DC/S) 2000–present TCU Head coaching record Overall 146–49 Bowls 9–5 Accomplishments and honors Championships 1 C-USA (2002) 4 MWC (2005, 2009–2011) 1 Big 12 (2014) Awards 2x AFCA Coach of the Year (2009, 2014)[2] 2x AP Coach of the Year (2009, 2014) Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year (2009) 2x Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (2009, 2014)[3][4] George Munger Award (2009) Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award (2009) 2x SN Coach of the Year (2009, 2014) 2x Walter Camp Coach of the Year (2009, 2014) 2x The Woody Hayes Trophy (2009, 2014) Home Depot Coach of the Year Award (2014)[5] Paul "Bear" Bryant Award (2014) C-USA Coach of the Year (2002) 2x MWC Coach of the Year (2005, 2009)[6] Big 12 Coach of the Year (2014)[7] Gary Patterson (born February 13, 1960) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Texas Christian University and the winningest coach in Horned Frogs' history. Patterson has led the TCU Horned Frogs to six conference championships—one Conference USA title in 2002; four Mountain West Conference titles in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011; and one Big 12 Conference title in 2014—and nine bowl game victories—including victories in the 2011 Rose Bowl and 2014 Peach Bowl. His 2010 squad finished the season undefeated at 13–0 after a 21-19 Rose Bowl victory over the Wisconsin Badgers on New Year's Day 2011, and ranked second in the final tallying of both major polls.
Early life, playing career, education, and family[edit] Patterson grew up in Rozel, Kansas and played football at Dodge City Community College and at Kansas State University. Patterson is married to Kelsey Patterson (née Hayes). He has three sons: Josh, Cade and Blake. He received his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1983 from Kansas State University, where he became a member of the Acacia Fraternity. While coaching at Tennessee Tech he earned a master's degree in educational administration in 1984. Outside of coaching, Patterson plays guitar and performs at charity events around the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the off season. Coaching career[edit] Early years[edit] Patterson began his coaching career in 1982 at Kansas State University as an assistant to head coach Jim Dickey. After subsequently serving a number of years as an assistant coach at a number of different schools, Patterson was hired by Dennis Franchione as the defensive coordinator at the University of New Mexico in 1996. He had previously served as a linebackers coach at Tennessee Tech (1983-1984) where Franchione was the offensive coordinator and in the same capacity on Franchione's Pittsburg State University staff in 1988, as well as playing on the 1980 Kansas State Wildcats football team when Franchione was an assistant on the coaching staff. He followed Franchione to Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1998, serving as the defensive coordinator there, as well. He was named head coach at TCU prior to the Mobile Alabama Bowl in December 2000 after Franchione left to become the head coach at the University of Alabama. Patterson remains friends with former Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill from their time as coaches on Franchione's Pittsburg State staff.[8] Kill served as the best man during Patterson's wedding to wife Kelsey in 2004.[8][dead link] Head coach at TCU[edit] Patterson won his 110th game at TCU with a 56-0 rout of Grambling, passing Dutch Meyer as the winningest coach in program history. His teams have won at least 10 games in a season eight times. Only twice have they failed to reach a bowl, in 2004 and 2013. Patterson's Frogs have earned a spot in the year-end top 25 ten times, counting his partial season as head coach in 2000. In 2005, Patterson led the Frogs to the Mountain West Conference championship in their first season as a member. Over the course of the 2005 and 2006 seasons, the Frogs won four consecutive games against Big 12 Conference opponents, with three of the victories coming on the road. Patterson was named the 2005 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.[6] In January 2007, Patterson turned down a head coaching offer from the University of Minnesota worth over $2 million per year.[9] Patterson led the 2009 Horned Frogs to a perfect 12–0 regular season record, a Mountain West Conference championship, a #4 final BCS ranking, and an invitation to the 2010 Fiesta Bowl—their first major bowl appearance in 51 years. They ultimately fell by a score of 17–10 to undefeated #6 Boise State. The 2009 Horned Frogs became the second "BCS Buster" from the Mountain West Conference (and the fourth, overall). For much of the season, they were a serious threat to "crash" the 2010 BCS National Championship Game. Earlier in the day, Cincinnati defeated Pitt on an epic fourth-quarter rally. Cincinnati's win denied the Horned Frogs a shot at playing for the national championship, as it assured that two teams from Automatic Qualifying conferences would finish the regular season undefeated (whoever won the 2009 SEC Championship Game would have also finished undefeated). Patterson was named the 2009 AP Coach of the Year, becoming the first head coach of a non-BCS conference team to win the award.[10] He won a total of seven national "Coach of the Year" awards in 2009[3] in addition to being named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year for the second time (his third conference "Coach of the Year" award, overall). The following year, Patterson led the 2010 Horned Frogs to a second consecutive undefeated regular season and a #3 final BCS ranking. TCU received the first Rose Bowl invitation offered to a team from a non-AQ conference during the BCS era. The Horned Frogs won the 2011 Rose Bowl, 21–19, over Wisconsin to cap off only the second undefeated and untied season in school history. When TCU entered the Big 12 Conference in 2012, Patterson was faced with 7-6 2012 and 4-8 2013 seasons, but turned it around and led the Horned Frogs to their first Big 12 title in 2014, going 11-1, finishing in the top 5 of polls, with impressive wins over #4 Oklahoma, Minnesota, #7 Kansas State and scoring 82 points behind a 31-point third quarter against Texas Tech. The 2014 TCU Horned Frogs football team shared a conference title with Baylor and were ranked #6 by the inaugural College Football Playoff selection committee. Patterson once again won several national "Coach of the Year" honors for turning the team around after the disastrous 2013 season. He was also named the Big 12 Chuck Neinas Coach of the Year.[7] Patterson now has four conference coach of the year awards, from three different conferences, all earned while coaching the same program. In August 2016, TCU announced Patterson's contract had been extended through 2022, with an annual base salary of $4.75 Million.[1]
I can't help but set some of the record straight on defense and the Big 12 ... you have to understand what is leading into this to understand that a lot of it starts way before the kids get onto a college campus.
If you go to the HS level in Texas, EVERYBODY is running the spread offense and putting all of their best players on offense. HS offense in Texas is really simple ... spread everybody out, identify the defender that sucks, and attack that player over and over and over again. As a result, the balance of offensive to defensive recruits in Texas is a little skewed.
Then, when you get to the games in the Big 12, the one thing that they do probably better than anybody else (and this is stemmed from the transition for many kids from HS to college) is play with tempo to the point that they keep defensive players on the field in positions where not only can they not sub, but lining up and getting defensive calls is a challenge. For example, prior to this week's debacle at Okie Lite, Charlie Strong was getting a ton of credit for how the Texas offense got changed over ... pretty much the credit is driven by the fact that they installed the offense of their freshman QB from HS so that he didn't have to learn anything new.
Specifically as it pertains to TCU and Gary Patterson or even Oklahoma and Bob Stoops, this is a situation where I think with both of them you have situations where you have a convergence of the underlying HS feeder systems (including best players on offense) and needing to reconsider some of their schemes in relation to not only what other teams are running, but what they are able to recruit.
As a bit of an aside to the above, the best way to stop spread teams is to be able to rush 3-4 guys, drop the rest into coverage to flood the passing lanes (forcing teams to go sideways), and being sure tacklers. If you really get down to it, go back the last 2-4 years in the Big 12 and find me elite DL's ... you won't find one and you won't find one that is anywhere close to what Washington has right now
Anybody that understand the defense of Gary Patterson can tell you that it is simplistic in its scheme and is based on execution by its players. It's probably a defense at this point that would work better in the NFL than what he has had at TCU the last few years. Last year, literally every single projected defensive starter had an injury at some point during the year and many of those injuries were season ending injuries. If you go back and look at the defensive output it got better throughout the year. This year the secondary is flat out bad by TCU standards and as a result it gets compromised easily. And against spread teams, if you can't cover and shade your defense to protect against the pass whether it is setting your LBs a little deeper or playing your DBs with more cushion you're in a position where you're likely going to be outnumbered in the run game (anybody that watched the TCU-Oklahoma game could see that easily) and/or giving up easy throws in the passing game.
Moreover, in calling out the 2014 game against Baylor where TCU lost 61-58, it's glossing over the balance of a 12-1 season where 1) the team averaged giving up 19 points per game defensively (which including giving up 61 in a game) and 2) destroyed a very good Ole Miss team in the Peach Bowl by giving up 3 points to them. Specifically in the Baylor game, looking at the numbers shines a bit of a light on how Big 12 offenses can really stretch defenses. In that game, Bryce Petty for Baylor completed only 28 of his 55 catches ... but those 28 completions went for 510 yards. Simply put, once Baylor realized that they couldn't complete their usual short passing game against the TCU defense, they more or less decided to just take shot after shot after shot for the rest of the game (which had also been a staple of many other recent TCU/Baylor games at the time). In doing so, it also softened TCU's run defense allowing Baylor to run 54 times for 272 yards. And while the yardage looked great, the results weren't there because with 11:38 to go in the game TCU was up by 21 points. However, when you run close to 100 plays in a game and are asked to defend that many plays, at some point you break and that's what happened to TCU's defense at that point.
There's a lot that goes into the mess that is Big 12 defenses right now. But the balance of it starts with the allocation of players between offense/defense and how the offensive coaches are able to stretch every rule advantage in their favor as possible whether it be the hurry up to prevent substitutions or getting OL down the field on RPO's. What's going on in the Big 12 right now isn't that dissimilar to some of what went on in the PAC 10 in the 1990's where seemingly every single team had a QB that was really good and if that QB got hot in a game you were in trouble
Baylor is a turd from a turd conference. Enough said on that.
I'll be the judge of that, thank you.
Well?
I say wait 2 to 3 more weeks to see how things play out. Conference could be a corny turd, a healthy floater, or diaper gravy. Too soon. It's not the SEC, but is it worse than the ACC, the Pac12, or 9 of the 13 teams in the Big 10?
Program is very Rapey, but my guess is Baylor will make a decent bowl and play to a one or two score result against a mid-level team like BYU. Again, too soon to make the turdy call yet.
Comments
If you go to the HS level in Texas, EVERYBODY is running the spread offense and putting all of their best players on offense. HS offense in Texas is really simple ... spread everybody out, identify the defender that sucks, and attack that player over and over and over again. As a result, the balance of offensive to defensive recruits in Texas is a little skewed.
Then, when you get to the games in the Big 12, the one thing that they do probably better than anybody else (and this is stemmed from the transition for many kids from HS to college) is play with tempo to the point that they keep defensive players on the field in positions where not only can they not sub, but lining up and getting defensive calls is a challenge. For example, prior to this week's debacle at Okie Lite, Charlie Strong was getting a ton of credit for how the Texas offense got changed over ... pretty much the credit is driven by the fact that they installed the offense of their freshman QB from HS so that he didn't have to learn anything new.
Specifically as it pertains to TCU and Gary Patterson or even Oklahoma and Bob Stoops, this is a situation where I think with both of them you have situations where you have a convergence of the underlying HS feeder systems (including best players on offense) and needing to reconsider some of their schemes in relation to not only what other teams are running, but what they are able to recruit.
As a bit of an aside to the above, the best way to stop spread teams is to be able to rush 3-4 guys, drop the rest into coverage to flood the passing lanes (forcing teams to go sideways), and being sure tacklers. If you really get down to it, go back the last 2-4 years in the Big 12 and find me elite DL's ... you won't find one and you won't find one that is anywhere close to what Washington has right now
Anybody that understand the defense of Gary Patterson can tell you that it is simplistic in its scheme and is based on execution by its players. It's probably a defense at this point that would work better in the NFL than what he has had at TCU the last few years. Last year, literally every single projected defensive starter had an injury at some point during the year and many of those injuries were season ending injuries. If you go back and look at the defensive output it got better throughout the year. This year the secondary is flat out bad by TCU standards and as a result it gets compromised easily. And against spread teams, if you can't cover and shade your defense to protect against the pass whether it is setting your LBs a little deeper or playing your DBs with more cushion you're in a position where you're likely going to be outnumbered in the run game (anybody that watched the TCU-Oklahoma game could see that easily) and/or giving up easy throws in the passing game.
Moreover, in calling out the 2014 game against Baylor where TCU lost 61-58, it's glossing over the balance of a 12-1 season where 1) the team averaged giving up 19 points per game defensively (which including giving up 61 in a game) and 2) destroyed a very good Ole Miss team in the Peach Bowl by giving up 3 points to them. Specifically in the Baylor game, looking at the numbers shines a bit of a light on how Big 12 offenses can really stretch defenses. In that game, Bryce Petty for Baylor completed only 28 of his 55 catches ... but those 28 completions went for 510 yards. Simply put, once Baylor realized that they couldn't complete their usual short passing game against the TCU defense, they more or less decided to just take shot after shot after shot for the rest of the game (which had also been a staple of many other recent TCU/Baylor games at the time). In doing so, it also softened TCU's run defense allowing Baylor to run 54 times for 272 yards. And while the yardage looked great, the results weren't there because with 11:38 to go in the game TCU was up by 21 points. However, when you run close to 100 plays in a game and are asked to defend that many plays, at some point you break and that's what happened to TCU's defense at that point.
There's a lot that goes into the mess that is Big 12 defenses right now. But the balance of it starts with the allocation of players between offense/defense and how the offensive coaches are able to stretch every rule advantage in their favor as possible whether it be the hurry up to prevent substitutions or getting OL down the field on RPO's. What's going on in the Big 12 right now isn't that dissimilar to some of what went on in the PAC 10 in the 1990's where seemingly every single team had a QB that was really good and if that QB got hot in a game you were in trouble
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sport(s)
Football
Current position
Title
Head coach
Team
TCU
Conference
Big 12
Record
146–49
Annual salary
$4.75 Million[1]
Biographical details
Born
February 13, 1960 (age 56)
Rozel, Kansas
Alma mater
Kansas State University
Playing career
1978–1979
Dodge City CC
1980–1981
Kansas State
Position(s)
Safety, linebacker
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1982
Kansas State (GA)
1983–1984
Tennessee Tech (LB)
1986
UC Davis (LB)
1987
Cal Lutheran (DC)
1988
Pittsburg State (LB)
1989–1991
Sonoma State (DC)
1992
Oregon Lightning Bolts
1992–1994
Utah State (DB)
1995
Navy (DB)
1996–1997
New Mexico (DC/S)
1998–2000
TCU (DC/S)
2000–present
TCU
Head coaching record
Overall
146–49
Bowls
9–5
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
1 C-USA (2002)
4 MWC (2005, 2009–2011)
1 Big 12 (2014)
Awards
2x AFCA Coach of the Year (2009, 2014)[2]
2x AP Coach of the Year (2009, 2014)
Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year (2009)
2x Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (2009, 2014)[3][4]
George Munger Award (2009)
Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award (2009)
2x SN Coach of the Year (2009, 2014)
2x Walter Camp Coach of the Year (2009, 2014)
2x The Woody Hayes Trophy (2009, 2014)
Home Depot Coach of the Year Award (2014)[5]
Paul "Bear" Bryant Award (2014)
C-USA Coach of the Year (2002)
2x MWC Coach of the Year (2005, 2009)[6]
Big 12 Coach of the Year (2014)[7]
Gary Patterson (born February 13, 1960) is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Texas Christian University and the winningest coach in Horned Frogs' history. Patterson has led the TCU Horned Frogs to six conference championships—one Conference USA title in 2002; four Mountain West Conference titles in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011; and one Big 12 Conference title in 2014—and nine bowl game victories—including victories in the 2011 Rose Bowl and 2014 Peach Bowl. His 2010 squad finished the season undefeated at 13–0 after a 21-19 Rose Bowl victory over the Wisconsin Badgers on New Year's Day 2011, and ranked second in the final tallying of both major polls.
Early life, playing career, education, and family[edit]
Patterson grew up in Rozel, Kansas and played football at Dodge City Community College and at Kansas State University. Patterson is married to Kelsey Patterson (née Hayes). He has three sons: Josh, Cade and Blake. He received his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1983 from Kansas State University, where he became a member of the Acacia Fraternity. While coaching at Tennessee Tech he earned a master's degree in educational administration in 1984. Outside of coaching, Patterson plays guitar and performs at charity events around the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the off season.
Coaching career[edit]
Early years[edit]
Patterson began his coaching career in 1982 at Kansas State University as an assistant to head coach Jim Dickey. After subsequently serving a number of years as an assistant coach at a number of different schools, Patterson was hired by Dennis Franchione as the defensive coordinator at the University of New Mexico in 1996. He had previously served as a linebackers coach at Tennessee Tech (1983-1984) where Franchione was the offensive coordinator and in the same capacity on Franchione's Pittsburg State University staff in 1988, as well as playing on the 1980 Kansas State Wildcats football team when Franchione was an assistant on the coaching staff. He followed Franchione to Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1998, serving as the defensive coordinator there, as well. He was named head coach at TCU prior to the Mobile Alabama Bowl in December 2000 after Franchione left to become the head coach at the University of Alabama.
Patterson remains friends with former Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill from their time as coaches on Franchione's Pittsburg State staff.[8] Kill served as the best man during Patterson's wedding to wife Kelsey in 2004.[8][dead link]
Head coach at TCU[edit]
Patterson won his 110th game at TCU with a 56-0 rout of Grambling, passing Dutch Meyer as the winningest coach in program history. His teams have won at least 10 games in a season eight times. Only twice have they failed to reach a bowl, in 2004 and 2013. Patterson's Frogs have earned a spot in the year-end top 25 ten times, counting his partial season as head coach in 2000. In 2005, Patterson led the Frogs to the Mountain West Conference championship in their first season as a member. Over the course of the 2005 and 2006 seasons, the Frogs won four consecutive games against Big 12 Conference opponents, with three of the victories coming on the road. Patterson was named the 2005 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.[6] In January 2007, Patterson turned down a head coaching offer from the University of Minnesota worth over $2 million per year.[9]
Patterson led the 2009 Horned Frogs to a perfect 12–0 regular season record, a Mountain West Conference championship, a #4 final BCS ranking, and an invitation to the 2010 Fiesta Bowl—their first major bowl appearance in 51 years. They ultimately fell by a score of 17–10 to undefeated #6 Boise State. The 2009 Horned Frogs became the second "BCS Buster" from the Mountain West Conference (and the fourth, overall). For much of the season, they were a serious threat to "crash" the 2010 BCS National Championship Game. Earlier in the day, Cincinnati defeated Pitt on an epic fourth-quarter rally. Cincinnati's win denied the Horned Frogs a shot at playing for the national championship, as it assured that two teams from Automatic Qualifying conferences would finish the regular season undefeated (whoever won the 2009 SEC Championship Game would have also finished undefeated). Patterson was named the 2009 AP Coach of the Year, becoming the first head coach of a non-BCS conference team to win the award.[10] He won a total of seven national "Coach of the Year" awards in 2009[3] in addition to being named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year for the second time (his third conference "Coach of the Year" award, overall).
The following year, Patterson led the 2010 Horned Frogs to a second consecutive undefeated regular season and a #3 final BCS ranking. TCU received the first Rose Bowl invitation offered to a team from a non-AQ conference during the BCS era. The Horned Frogs won the 2011 Rose Bowl, 21–19, over Wisconsin to cap off only the second undefeated and untied season in school history. When TCU entered the Big 12 Conference in 2012, Patterson was faced with 7-6 2012 and 4-8 2013 seasons, but turned it around and led the Horned Frogs to their first Big 12 title in 2014, going 11-1, finishing in the top 5 of polls, with impressive wins over #4 Oklahoma, Minnesota, #7 Kansas State and scoring 82 points behind a 31-point third quarter against Texas Tech.
The 2014 TCU Horned Frogs football team shared a conference title with Baylor and were ranked #6 by the inaugural College Football Playoff selection committee. Patterson once again won several national "Coach of the Year" honors for turning the team around after the disastrous 2013 season. He was also named the Big 12 Chuck Neinas Coach of the Year.[7] Patterson now has four conference coach of the year awards, from three different conferences, all earned while coaching the same program.
In August 2016, TCU announced Patterson's contract had been extended through 2022, with an annual base salary of $4.75 Million.[1]
Big12 doesn't play defense. 'Nuff said on that.
Program is very Rapey, but my guess is Baylor will make a decent bowl and play to a one or two score result against a mid-level team like BYU. Again, too soon to make the turdy call yet.