TCU’s Gary Patterson plans to get even more involved on the offensive side
TCU coach Gary Patterson is making sure his voice is heard when it comes to quarterback snaps this season. He added another offensive area to his list following Saturday’s 39-7 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Patterson wasn’t pleased with how his tight ends and receivers blocked on perimeter plays.
“If you want to run the football, you have to block on the perimeter,” Patterson said. “If you’re not going to block, then you’re not going to catch. I’m going to be the guy who says who starts and who plays and how we do all this stuff.
“It’ll be the first thing I watch in the morning before I watch defense.”
Patterson pointed to the Frogs’ final possession of the first half, saying two key screens should’ve been touchdowns if the right people blocked the safety and outside linebacker. TCU settled for a field goal to end the half after taking over at the UAPB 36 with 26 seconds left.
Outside of that, Patterson acknowledged the offense has to improve on red zone opportunities. TCU had seven trips to the red zone, settling for field goals on five of them.
That continued a trend from last season when TCU converted less than half of its trips to the red zone into touchdowns (16 TDs in 34 trips).
Patterson said the offense struggled in the red zone throughout fall camp, too.
“We’re going to have to get a lot better down there,” Patterson said. “The best way to get better there is you’ve got to be able to run the football. It’s critical because its tighter windows, how you throw it, how you run it, everything becomes a lot tougher.”
The quick screens on the perimeter are considered “running” plays by Patterson, which is why he’s adamant that the blocking must improve on the outside.
Patterson went on to say he’d discuss with his staff the best game-day locations for each member. Saturday night saw both co-offensive coordinators, Sonny Cumbie and Curtis Luper, on the field instead of having one in the coaching booth.
It marked the first time Cumbie had called a game from the field since becoming TCU’s play-caller in 2017.
“They wanted to do that,” Patterson said. “We’ll probably talk about how we thought that went down.”
Patterson is making his presence felt more on the offensive side this season. TCU is coming off its worst scoring season of his tenure, and it’s understandable why he’s having more input.
But Patterson also doesn’t want to play “God,” and do too much on offense. He’s still calling the defense and is heavily involved in special teams.
As he said on his radio show last week, “I’m not a technical genius when it comes to offensive line play. I’m not calling plays. But the bottom line is I do know what hurts defenses and how you should attack them. That’s going to be my suggestions. But you’ve got to careful. You can’t play ‘I know everything.’
“We’ve got a lot of good minds on offense. The bottom line is we’ve got to play better than what we did.”
