TCU will lean on defense early, Patterson says on eve of practice

A year ago, Gary Patterson knew TCU had an offense that could cover for its defense for a while.

This year, “it’s going to kind of be a little bit opposite,” he said Wednesday at the annual “Reporting Day” news conference on the eve of fall camp.

The Horned Frogs begin practice on Thursday with a defense well ahead of the offense in experience. The defense can boast starters or former starters in at least eight positions, while the offense must set about picking a new quarterback, evaluating a new set of receivers, sorting through five running backs and working in two new starting offensive linemen.

Patterson can get a sense of what the defense is.

The offense, however, has too many moving parts to pin down.

“The way I approach this season is, I don’t know [what] they’re going to be,” Patterson said. “So we’ve got to be better [on defense]. I felt like last year, I knew they were going to have to cover us while we grew up on defense. We’re going to have to go after them until they grow up and find themselves. Hopefully, they find themselves by the first ballgame.”

It starts with finding a quarterback. Patterson said he wants one in place nine to 10 days before the season opener Sept. 3 against South Dakota State.

Former Texas A&M starter Kenny Hill and sophomore Foster Sawyer are “in my mind, 50-50,” said quarterbacks coach Sonny Cumbie.

Patterson said the decision will come down to who moves the ball and makes the other players better.

“Does he make everybody better when he steps on the field?” Patterson said. “Does the offense move better? It doesn’t have to be the best athlete. It has to be the guy that makes everybody else go. Whoever makes everybody else go will be the guy that will start it all off. Hopefully, we’ll have two of them. Before it’s said and done, it would be great if we had three.”

Whoever emerges at quarterback will get a bounty of targets. Deanté Gray and Ty Slanina return from injury to join a receiving corps that lost Josh Doctson but returns veterans KaVontae Turpin, Jaelan Austin, Jarrison Stewart, Emanuel Porter and Desmon White. They’re supplemented by newcomers Taj Williams, Isaiah Graham and John Diarse, an LSU transfer.

“The young wide receivers, some of the young guys we had in the spring, it excites me,” Patterson said.

On defense, Patterson has the benefit of four experienced hands he missed a year ago. Defensive end James McFarland, linebacker Sammy Douglas, safety Kenny Iloka and cornerback Ranthony Texada are all back after being lost to injury in consecutive weeks a year ago.

Combined with the experience that returns, that ought to give Patterson something to be excited about, too.

But not so fast, my friends.

“There’s not anybody walking back in as a starter, let alone anybody that’s new or got hurt,” he said. “Right now, it’s an open door. ... You guys want me to come out and I’m going to anoint them. In this league, you just need to hold on to your pants. We’ll find out at the end of the year if they’re worth a darn.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 7:06 PM with the headline "TCU will lean on defense early, Patterson says on eve of practice."