TCU’s Gary Patterson can shift focus to what he does best with Jerry Kill on board
If Jerry Kill is doing his job properly, Gary Patterson won’t have to worry about TCU’s offense. Patterson can be all-in on the defensive side and not feel as though he has to meddle in offensive decisions as he did last season.
That’s why he hired Kill as a special assistant, serving as the program’s de facto “offensive head coach.”
“He had to spend a lot more time on offense than he wanted to,” Kill said during a conference call with reporters on Monday. “With me coming in, I’m the ‘check mark guy’ on offense. Like he always says, I’m the head coach on offense. He says what I say goes. If I need to get on somebody, I can. I’m the boss of the offensive coaches.”
Landing Kill ranked as the biggest offseason move made by Patterson, who opted to make subtle adjustments instead of a complete overhaul following last season’s disappointing 5-7 finish.
TCU is standing by Sonny Cumbie as its offensive coordinator, although Kill will have the strongest voice in the room. Other additions include bringing back Doug Meacham as inside receivers coach and hiring Bryan Applewhite as running backs coach.
At the end of the day, the new structure will relieve some pressure on Patterson.
Patterson became more involved offensively last season. During fall camp, he made it clear that he’d have the final say on quarterback decisions. He wasn’t happy during the 2018 season when then-quarterback Shawn Robinson went down with an injury and the backups had limited game experience to that point.
Then, after a 39-7 victory over Arkansas—Pine Bluff to open the 2019 season, Patterson was frustrated with the blocking efforts by the wide receivers and tight ends and said he’d get even more involved offensively.
That won’t be the case anymore. Or at least it shouldn’t be the case with Kill on board.
Kill is the trusted set of eyes overseeing the offense. He’ll “coach the coaches” just as much as the players, similar to what Patterson does on the defensive side.
The desired result is for it to translate to more wins on the field. This is a team that wasn’t too far off from a successful season last year if they could’ve flipped a few one-score games instead of going 1-6 in them.
As Kill said, “Good teams finish the games and find ways to win the close games. If we found a way to win all the close games, I probably wouldn’t be here.”
Kill went on to say that nobody is more motivated to win than Patterson. That’s why Kill is thrilled to end his own career alongside one of his closest confidants over the years.
“He comes off as a hard-nose, tough guy, which he is and that’s why all the damn players get drafted from here,” Kill said. “At the same time, nobody sees that other side, which is a side that probably needs to be talked about more because I know him better than anybody else. We can sit and visit and talk about things that need to get better in the program. He’s going to listen.
“There’s nobody that wants to win badder than that guy. He’s a machine. There aren’t many guys his age running around a football field like he does. He hasn’t lost a step in his intensity.
“I’m going to try and take stuff off his plate so that he can concentrate on what he does best. When he does that, we’re going to be able to win games. You know that as well as I do.”
For Patterson, Kill is the perfect person to relinquish offensive duties to. There is a deep-rooted respect and admiration between the two who have become best friends over the years. (Kill was Patterson’s best man in his wedding.) Both grew up in small towns in Kansas and reached college football’s highest level.
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“He’s been an unbelievable hire for me as a head coach,” Patterson said. “He’s not only my friend, but he’s just a really good ball coach. I’m really excited that he’s on the staff. It’s been awesome for me and I think it’s going to pay big dividends going forward.”
Kill has been known as a “fixer” over the years, turning around programs at Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois and Minnesota, and has embraced his latest challenge at TCU. This is an offense that ranked in the bottom half of the Big 12 the past two seasons compared to a defense that ranked at the top of the league.
Part of it can be blamed on inexperienced quarterback play. In 2018, the Horned Frogs had a first-year starter in Robinson and then battled a number of different injuries. By the end of the season, four different quarterbacks had played meaningful snaps.
TCU went through more growing pains with true freshman Max Duggan last season. But Kill sees plenty of promise in Duggan and the offense to get things going in the right direction again.
“There’s enough talent there to do some good things and be better than we were a year ago,” Kill said. “We should be better, period. As a guy that’s been around a long time, I’d say we’ve got a long way to go but there’s enough talent. We’ve got to coach them up.
“I’ve been known as a ‘fix it guy’ and I’ll see if I still have that title or I get fired. I’m just like anyone else.”
