TCU, Patterson will enter 2015 facing high expectations

TCU football will face different expectations next season, which means a different approach for coach Gary Patterson.

No more underdog.

No more little ol’ us.

The Horned Frogs, who finished third in the final AP and coaches’ rankings thanks to their 12-1 season and Peach Bowl championship, will almost certainly start in the top 10 next season, likely in the top five, and a favorite for the Big 12 championship.

Already, ESPN analyst Mark Schlabach has put TCU No. 1 in his “Way-Too-Early Top 25,” and Fox Sports’ Stewart Mandel put TCU No. 2 in his first 2015 ranking.

It will take a whole new mindset for the Frogs and Patterson, now that they have gotten the attention of the country.

“The way I’ve always approached it is, either way, you’re trying to prove a point,” Patterson said last weekend in Dallas when he won the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award from the Football Writers Association of America. “Either you’re trying to prove them wrong, that you’re a better team than you were when they picked you low, or you’re trying to prove them right if they pick you high. So either way, you’ve got to get a chip on your shoulder.”

The Horned Frogs won only six conference games in their first two seasons in the Big 12. They were picked seventh in the 2014 preseason media poll. Merely getting back to a bowl game seemed like a reasonable expectation.

“I’m just going to try to build the best team I can build again,” Patterson said. “It’s the only thing I’ve got control over.”

With a strong start, the Frogs’ schedule sets up for them. They don’t face Baylor, the only team that beat them last year, until the season finale, and it’s at home. West Virginia, which gave the Frogs their second-toughest game in 2014, comes to Fort Worth for a Thursday night game.

But they will have to play well on the road, Patterson said.

“We had 10 games in the state of Texas this year. Now you’ve got to go on six tough road trips,” he said. “We’ll have to play better on the road offensively; with as many people as we have coming back, we’ll have an opportunity to do that. We’ve got to replace more on defense than we do on offense, so we’ve got to grow in that capacity.”

If Patterson can reforge a defense following the losses of linebackers Paul Dawson and Marcus Mallet, safeties Chris Hackett and Sam Carter, defensive tackle Chucky Hunter and cornerback Kevin White, it will give his team a chance to stay in the conversation.

But there is no room for error. One loss may be too much to overcome. Two certainly will be.

“Everybody out there is trying to do the same thing, trying to become one of the next four teams that gets in,” Patterson said. “If we don’t play like we did this year, we won’t be one of those teams.”

Starting highly ranked means the Frogs won’t have as far to climb to reach the top four. If they start in the top four, they may merely have to hold their place until the first CFP rankings come out.

This story was originally published January 13, 2015 at 3:18 PM with the headline "TCU, Patterson will enter 2015 facing high expectations."