Why Coach Patterson says it’s so important for TCU to establish a strong ground game
Gary Patterson knows TCU’s passing offense must improve if it’s going to win more games than it loses.
The pathway to doing that, Patterson said, is by establishing the run. The Horned Frogs are off to a 2-3 start with both of their wins coming when they topped the 200-yard rushing mark.
“Obviously, this year we’ve had better chances of winning ball games when we ran the football,” Patterson said. “We’ve got to keep doing it. I know the people out there want us to throw the ball vertical and we need to be able to do that. The key to be able to throw it is you’ve got to get people open. We’re going to keep working toward that. It’s not something that we’re not working on. We said we had to be better at pass protection and we’ve become that. This last week we talked about getting better at running the football and we did that.
“We just need to put both of those together.”
In four of their five wins last season, the Frogs rushed for at least 200 yards. That includes rushing for 226 yards on 53 carries during a 33-31 victory at Texas Tech.
The Frogs face the Red Raiders on Saturday in Fort Worth, and will be focused on running the ball. Tech ranks seventh in rushing defense among Big 12 teams, allowing an average of 159.7 yards per game.
TCU has used a running back by committee approach. Redshirt freshman Darwin Barlow leads the team with 228 yards, including a 100-yard performance against Baylor last weekend.
Quarterback Max Duggan is second on the team in yards rushing with 175 followed by true freshmen Kendre Miller (137 yards) and Zach Evans (98 yards), and redshirt freshman Daimarqua Foster (72 yards). Junior Emari Demercado, who picked up the game-sealing first down on a fourth-down run at Baylor last week, has 55 yards rushing. (Demercado was sidelined with an injury for the Kansas State and Oklahoma games.)
Miller missed the Baylor game with an undisclosed injury and is questionable going into the Tech game. Foster is not expected to be available for Tech, Patterson said. That’s why Patterson is pleased to have depth among the RB corps, saying: “I’m glad we’ve got five.”
Evans is the most high-profile, joining the program as a five-star prospect out of Galena Park North Shore. He did not play in the season opener against Iowa State, but he has seen his touches increase in the weeks since. Against Baylor, he had seven carries for 81 yards and one touchdown, and he had one reception for 10 yards.
Patterson has liked the growth and development shown by Evans in becoming a complete back. “For you guys it’s about all the carries,” he said. “It’s really about, ‘Do they know the pass protections? Do they know where to be and the right route when they go out and run a route?’ It’s all about learning how to do that and those younger guys have gotten better.”
As stated, Patterson believes that a formidable rushing game will eventually lead to a better passing attack. In the two wins in which TCU rushed for 200 yards (Texas and Baylor), it threw for 236 yards and 138 yards, respectively.
Those were enough passing yards to win that particular day, of course, but Patterson knows a more potent attack is necessary as the season goes on. The Frogs have only six passing touchdowns, the second-fewest among Big 12 teams, and rank sixth in passing offense.
The good news for TCU is it’s facing a team in Tech that has the Big 12’s worst pass defense, allowing 339.2 yards per game, and has allowed the most passing touchdowns (16) in the league.
But in order to take advantage of that situation, Patterson emphasized they must establish the ground game first. “If you can run the football, it opens up the passing game,” Patterson said. “We’ve got to be able to do that.”
