TCU’s Patterson ready to compete with Texas’ Herman

TCU hung the loss on Texas that led to Saturday’s ouster of former Longhorns’ coach Charlie Strong, a peer that Horned Frogs’ coach Gary Patterson has described as “a good man and a good football coach.”

Patterson said Tuesday that he is not as familiar with Tom Herman, the former Houston coach who has been selected as Strong’s successor. Herman took the job a day after the Frogs defeated the Longhorns, 31-9, in Austin to give Strong his third losing record in three seasons at the school.

Asked how well he knew Herman, Patterson said: “OK. I don’t know him great. I know a lot of people that do know him.”

Patterson, 56, is in his 16th season as TCU’s head football coach and will oversee his 202nd game for the Frogs, the most in school history, in Saturday’s matchup against Kansas State in Fort Worth. He’ll pass Dutch Meyer, who coached 201 games at TCU.

Patterson shrugged when asked about the significance of Herman, 41, becoming the latest hire for the Longhorns during Patterson’s tenure at TCU.

“He’ll be the third head coach they’ve had down at Texas,” Patterson said. “We’ve had five at (Texas) A&M, four or five at (Texas) Tech, … five at Baylor. It’s the next guy you have to go compete against.”

This story was originally published November 29, 2016 at 2:26 PM with the headline "TCU’s Patterson ready to compete with Texas’ Herman."