Here’s why you shouldn’t expect TCU’s Gary Patterson to make significant staff changes
TCU coach Gary Patterson didn’t sound like a man ready to make significant changes to his staff in the offseason.
The Horned Frogs have struggled offensively, scoring 28 or fewer points in eight consecutive games, and the defense had its worst performance of the season last Saturday at West Virginia.
But Patterson isn’t one to panic and didn’t give any indication of displeasure with co-offensive coordinator and play caller Sonny Cumbie, or anyone else on his staff.
Asked about changes in the offseason, Patterson’s first response: “Not people.”
Instead, Patterson said, the staff will look at ways to improve internally. The Frogs are in the midst of a forgettable season, clinging to their bowl lives at 4-6 going into Saturday’s game at Baylor.
“We’re going to go back and we’re going to have some conversations about what we need to do to be able to compete and play at a high level,” Patterson said. “The way you change your program always is, ‘How do you beat the teams that have always ended up at the top?’ Besides recruiting, how do you do the rest of it?”
Patterson said he has a “two-year” rule in deciding whether he should go in a different direction.
When he made changes to the offensive staff after the 2013 season, demoting Jarrett Anderson and Rusty Burns and bringing in Doug Meacham and Cumbie, it happened after a two-year struggle in adjusting to Big 12 play.
TCU finished eighth in the conference in offensive yards per play in its first two seasons in the conference, forcing Patterson to bring in coaches to implement the Air Raid offense.
The Frogs have done well since that change, winning 40 games in a four-year stretch from 2014-17. A season ago, with Cumbie as the play-caller, the Frogs had an offense that averaged 33.6 points a game and 419.2 yards.
This season, those numbers have dropped to 24.9 points a game and 376.1 yards a game. The 28-or-fewer points in eight straight games is the worst stretch since the 1-10 season in 1997, and TCU had its worst rushing performance since 2001 with minus-7 yards against West Virginia on Saturday.
But, to Patterson’s point, it’s not like Cumbie and fellow co-offensive coordinator Curtis Luper have suddenly forgotten how to coach. There’s been a multitude of reasons for TCU’s struggles.
The offense saw four significant contributors on the 2017 offensive line land in NFL camps, and lost one of their top O-lineman, left guard Cordel Iwuagwu, to an injury in the Texas game.
That, coupled with starting quarterback Shawn Robinson undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery and KaVontae Turpin’s dismissal, has left the Frogs short-handed offensively.
Patterson said the defensive side has endured its fair share of struggles, too. Each side of the ball has been dealt significant injury blows.
It’s gotten to the point that opposing coaches are even expressing empathy to Patterson, something that rarely happens in a sport where every team has some sort of injury problem during the season.
“Very few times has that happened when you see things going on and they [opposing coaches] say, ‘jiminy Christmas,’” Patterson said.
Patterson will review all aspects of his program on how it can improve this offseason, but a complete overhaul of the staff doesn’t sound like the solution.
“How did I handle things? How did we practice? How did I handle situations?” Patterson said. “If you need to be better at whatever decision that was, then change it. Fortunately for me, for us, we’re having this conversation cause it doesn’t happen very often.”
That seems to be the storyline for the entire 2018 season for TCU. From the unusually high number of injuries to blowing four halftime leads, this isn’t a typical season for Patterson and the Frogs.
Injuries have forced TCU to use 29 freshman (redshirt and true) this season compared to just 12 combined last season. Patterson has adjusted practices, limiting the number of periods to try and ensure the available players are healthy and ready to go on Saturdays.
And they’ve tried to figure out ways to close out games with halftime leads. Patterson is 131-18 in his career when his team is leading at halftime, but just 2-4 in those situations this season.
“If I knew that answer, I would’ve tried to solve it,” Patterson said. “We’ve had bad third quarters. We’ve tried to come out early. We’ve tried to warm up as a team. We’ve tried several different things to try and make it different. … I think we fool them for so long, not fooling them [in the second half], and you have to beat them. We’ve got to go beat them.
“When people turn it up, we have to be able to answer the bell. We haven’t done a good job of that.”
Just another thing on the list of issues Patterson and his staff will examine in the offseason.