A Gary Patterson confession: Why he doesn’t really like being the underdog

Gary Patterson has long cultivated the underdog mentality at TCU, and it’s gotten results.

But the Horned Frogs’ all-time winningest coach confessed Tuesday — he’s not all that into it.

“Everybody says that I like being the underdog. I don’t really like being the underdog,” Patterson told reporters at his midweek press conference.

So why do it?

“I think it fits TCU in the scenario in the state of Texas.”

The Frogs, Patterson figures, are rarely going to be considered in the same circle as Texas and Texas A&M. He long recruited against the higher profiles of the Longhorns and Aggies and other Texas schools during the Frogs’ WAC and Mountain West days. He has seen the Frogs fail to get the benefit of the doubt of the more established and larger state schools when it comes to some traditional football thinking.

He used an example.

“Where was Texas’ record a year ago?”

Um, 5-7.

“And they got a new head coach. And you don’t know. But they still started out in the preseason Top 25,” Patterson said.

“And we didn’t.”

No, TCU was unranked following a 6-7 season, just the third losing season under a 17th-year head coach who had a track record of producing big bounce-back campaigns.

At 5-0, the Frogs are No. 6 and looking like the front-runner for the Big 12 title and beyond.

History is repeating itself.

Patterson probably could have told people as much. He said he knew he’d have a better team in 2017 “as soon as we walked off the field against Georgia in the Liberty Bowl.”

But he didn’t bang the drum to promote his squad.

Why bother? Might as well assume underdog status and make it your own. Patterson has perfected the art.

“Bottom line to it is, instead of fighting it, why don’t we just go about our business and prove people wrong?” he said.

It’s worked so far.

This story was originally published October 11, 2017 at 3:00 PM with the headline "A Gary Patterson confession: Why he doesn’t really like being the underdog."