TCU AD Donati defends timing of football coaching departures
The TCU football staff landed a big-time recruiting class in the early signing period on Wednesday. A few hours later, news broke that a couple assistants were bolting coach Gary Patterson’s staff.
Co-offensive coordinator Curtis Luper is headed to Missouri to take a similar position, and offensive line coach Chris Thomsen is on his way to join Mike Norvell’s staff at Florida State.
Horned Frogs athletic director Jeremiah Donati defended the timing of the departures, saying it was simply happenstance that the changes occurred just a few hours after several players had signed.
“It’s the nature of the business,” Donati said. “It certainly wasn’t intentional. There’s always coaches that are looking at other places and are considering it. It just happened the way it happened. It certainly wasn’t intentional on our side.
“It wasn’t like we had knowledge beforehand that they were leaving and failed to disclose that intentionally.”
At least one TCU recruit had no issues with how the situation was handled. Edinburg offensive line prospect Tyler Bailey said he remains fully committed to TCU despite Thomsen leaving the program.
Bailey said Thomsen informed him of the news on Wednesday, and he understood the nature of the business.
“I still really believe in Coach P and the whole coaching staff,” Bailey said.
Donati went on to say that Missouri and Florida State are in similar situations, as recruits signed with its respective programs and now have new coaches on staff. It just comes down to timing.
This is the time of year when a number of coaching changes are happening across the country.
“This is happening everywhere,” Donati said. “It’s just unfortunate with the early signing period, it’s just the nature of the beast.”
Donati went on to say that the school’s coaches are recruiting players to TCU, not necessarily to play for the coach. Granted, relationships are formed but recruits are signing with a particular university at the end of the day.
Luper, after all, was a finalist to become New Mexico’s head coach and then drew interest from Mizzou. Thomsen had been linked to FSU ever since Norvell — one of his former players — took over.
“Now with the early signing period, this is going to be the case every single year,” Donati said. “You’re going to have coaching changes. You’re going to have kids signing, kids flipping and the rumor mill is going to be rampant.
“It’s difficult to totally sync that up.”
As far as Luper and Thomsen, Donati is happy for both of them. Each has landed in good spots and it gives TCU an opportunity to bring in new offensive minds.
“Chris and Curtis are really good coaches. Florida State and Missouri got two good ones,” Donati said. “They had really valuable contributions here and we’ll miss them. They’re both good guys.
“But, like with anything else, you’ve got to keep building.”
