Here’s everything TCU’s Gary Patterson said following season-ending loss to WVU
TCU coach Gary Patterson wasn’t pleased with his team following a 20-17 loss to West Virginia on Friday.
It marked just the third time in his 19 seasons as head coach that the Horned Frogs fell short of bowl eligibility. This year’s team finished 5-7, 3-6 in Big 12 games.
Here’s what he had to say afterward in a news conference that lasted just over six minutes —
Opening statement: “Got to make plays. Can’t give ballgames away. Can’t play offense second-and-15. Can’t keep drives alive with personal fouls. Plain and simple.
“Only a few times in my life, since I’ve been here, that we’ve lost when I’ve held people under 300 yards (West Virginia had 244 yards of total offense). And that’s happened twice this year (also against Baylor). Plain and simple.
“There won’t be any players talking. They’re not very happy with me right now, and I’m not very happy with them to be honest with you. I feel sorry for my seniors. I didn’t get them back to a bowl game. Simple as that.”
On locker room scene: “No, I’m not going to describe anything. We got beat. We’re not going to a bowl game, and I’m not happy with them, because we gave it away, to be honest with you. Plain and simple. Not emotional, not mad, matter of fact. Simple as that. We’ve got guys that say they want to be NFL guys that we’re going second-and-15 cause we can’t stay in there. We need to get ready to play.
“Bowl games are for the kids. The coaches, it’s a pain. So my life’s easier, to be honest with you. But I feel bad for them. I feel bad for the fans. I feel bad for the seniors, whoever the senior group it is. Only three times in 22 years now have we not done that. Simple as that.”
On any reason for passing game struggles: “Nope.”
On when he’ll start evaluating this season: “Already did. That started August. Got to be good at what you do you, don’t just decide come Dec. 1 to evaluate.”
On evaluation of co-OC Sonny Cumbie: “I’m not doing that. This’ll be done in a minute if you want to keep asking that. I’m not into selling newspapers. That’s your job.”
On the Senior Class: “Well, a lot of these seniors fought through last year. That, more than anything, I wanted to make sure I got them [to a bowl] this year because they fought through last year, all the injuries and everything that went on. And this year they had to deal with freshmen, so ... I mean, we got them stopped and we had a roughing the quarterback. You can go down the list of things. It wasn’t just one thing. I can just tell you guys that right now. We hurt ourselves in net punting, where we needed better punts. There’s a lot of things that could’ve been different. I can go down the list. It’s not just the offense, I can tell you guys that right now.”
On WVU’s defense pressure: “They have some really good players up front. They’ve been getting pressure on everybody they’ve played against, the Stills brothers [Darius and Dante] and that group. They get pressure on everybody with a four-man front. That’s what they do. They’re good players. You have to give them some credit, you know what I’m saying?”
On six losses by one score: “I don’t have an evaluation of that yet. Like I said, you wouldn’t decide anything right after something happened to you, would you? That wouldn’t be very smart.”
On what’s next: “We have a team meeting at 3 p.m. School goes longer, it goes almost until the 15th or 18th this year in December with finals, which was going to be a problem to be honest with you. It was going to be a problem playing in a bowl game cause it was going to be hard for us to practice and get enough practices in because we would’ve been recruiting up to that point. Why it’s later in the year? I have no idea. It’s the first time it’s happened like that in a long time, but it was going to be a problem. About the time we could start practicing was finals and then you can’t practice. So maybe the football gods just said, ‘Well, you’re not going to have to put up with that.’”
Closing statement: “I’m going to tell you guys something, in 2004 we got beat by Tulane and we couldn’t make it on the 1- or 2-yard line and they went 98 yards and scored. It was one of the best things that ever happened to us that we didn’t go to a bowl game because we weren’t very good and we didn’t deserve to be, to be honest with you.
“For us, whether that’s the same way or however it is, the bottom line to it is we’re not [bowl eligible]. Everybody can have their opinion about what else they want to do, but bottom line to it is we’re not going. They scored three more points than we did. I’m very thankful for the seniors. To be honest with you, I’m really thankful for all the younger guys who could’ve been a lot of different things and played well.
“The bottom line to it is we still came up short seven times this season. And not a lot of things were on their favor. We went on the road a lot. Not a lot of big games at home, so we have between now and next September to try and fix some of those things.”
