TCU football has several factors to weigh whether to redshirt DE Colt Ellison
TCU coach Gary Patterson doesn’t know if it’ll be in the program’s best interest to redshirt Colt Ellison this season.
Ellison, a freshman pass rusher out of Aledo, made his first career start against Baylor last week and registered one tackle. Ellison got the start with fifth-year senior Shameik Blackshear sidelined with an injury.
Ellison came off the bench in the previous two games against Texas and Oklahoma State as Parker Workman was out with injury.
Ellison is expected to play again at Texas Tech on Saturday, which would put him at the four-game limit to obtain a redshirt this season. But Patterson has no plans of shutting down Ellison afterward.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do that,” Patterson said.
Much depends on how Ellison and TCU play in Lubbock. Patterson made it clear that winning and becoming bowl eligible this season remains the No. 1 goal.
And he doesn’t want to possibly delay Ellison’s growth similar to what happened with Ochaun Mathis.
Mathis played in only four games before being shut down last season. It’s taken almost a half season for Mathis to emerge this season.
If Mathis would’ve played late last season, Patterson acknowledged, the learning curve might’ve sped up.
TCU doesn’t want to endure similar growing pains with Ellison next season.
“You’ve got to decide if you need to play somebody so they can actually find out what they don’t do well, so you can get them moving forward,” Patterson said.
It’s taken time, but there’s no question Mathis is “moving forward” now. He had a breakout game against Baylor, registering seven tackles, including 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
The 1.5 sacks were a career-high, while the seven tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss tied a career-best.
Mathis has long been viewed as a difference-making player in the program and is starting to live up to the hype. All of his teammates have seen his potential in practice.
“Ochaun is going to be a very good player, there’s no doubt,” senior right tackle David Bolisomi said. “You see it at practice. You can see Ochaun is going to be very, very good on this team with the coaching staff that we have.
“With his work ethic, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to be a very good player for TCU.”
As Patterson said about Mathis’ performance against Baylor, “I think the light went on a little bit.”
But Patterson also said Mathis played too many snaps. TCU would’ve preferred having him in the 60-snap range compared to him playing all 87 defensive snaps.
“I think he ran out of gas and made some mistakes late,” Patterson said. “For a redshirt freshman, that’s just too many plays. Early when he was fresh he was all over the place. We’ve got to do a better job of rotating him in a ball game.”
That’s why Ellison could become a valuable piece down the stretch, even if it means forfeiting his redshirt status.
This is a guy who joined the program as a three-star prospect out of high school and has drawn positive reviews from Patterson in recent weeks.
“At the beginning of the season, Colt Ellison ... no way could he get on the field and he’s going to start on Saturday,” Patterson said on his radio show last week before the Baylor game.
“Really in practice he’s done well. He played pretty well last week and he’ll keep progressing cause that’s what we need him to do for us to become what we want to become next year.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 2:02 PM.
