TCU gives coach Gary Patterson contract extension

TCU coach Gary Patterson received a contract extension on the same day the College Football Playoff committee left his team out of the top four.

The school did not announce terms, but athletic director Chris Del Conte said the extension carries Patterson through the end of the decade and that “he is well taken care of.”

The Horned Frogs, No. 6 when the playoff field was announced Dec. 7, did not make the national semifinals but will meet No. 9 Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

“We waited to the end of the year, said here’s what we’re going to do for you, stood up, shook hands and said, ‘Next subject,’” Del Conte said. “Making sure we continue to invest in our students and our coaches, that’s my job.”

During a news conference to formally accept the Peach Bowl invitation, Del Conte credited Patterson for guiding the football program through two stormy initial seasons in the Big 12.

“The first year, we won seven games. The next year, lost four games by 11 points,” Del Conte said. “We were close. We could see it coming.”

Patterson shrugged off the extension.

“New contracts and all those kinds of things have more to do with recruiting than anything else,” he said. “I always tell people, ‘I’m glad just to have 20 bucks for my soft drinks, because that’s about all I have time for.’”

Patterson, 54, is finishing his 14th season as head coach at TCU and is the school’s winningest coach with 131 victories. He has won six conference championships in three leagues, Conference USA, the Mountain West Conference and Big 12. His .744 winning percentage is fourth among active coaches with at least 10 seasons.

This year, Patterson has won coach of the year honors from the Eddie Robinson Award, the Walter Camp Football Foundation, ESPN/Home Depot, CBSSports.com and Scout.com. He was the Big 12’s Coach of the Year and The Associated Press’ Big 12 coach of the Year.

Patterson said he is glad to have done it all at TCU.

“At some point in time, you become more than a coach with the university, you’re an ambassador for it,” he said. “You don’t just make a decision to win football games, you make decisions that make the university better, especially at a small private school because you can have an effect.

“For me, it’s been about giving back. For all your success, you want people to have success with you. What I had the most pride in, we’ve been able to show off the Texas high school coaches and their kids and we’re able to show off the university and the town of Fort Worth and the Metroplex. Even after the Rose Bowl, I got a lot more, ‘Thank you for what you did for Fort Worth,’ than I ever did ,‘Thanks for going 13-0 and winning the Rose Bowl.’”

Briefly

▪ The Frogs leave for Atlanta on Dec. 25 following practice. The team will visit the Georgia Dome the next morning then practice three days at Georgia Tech.

This story was originally published December 16, 2014 at 4:08 PM with the headline "TCU gives coach Gary Patterson contract extension."