TCU football has improved, but COVID makes it tough to evaluate program, Patterson says
TCU coach Gary Patterson doesn’t know how you can properly evaluate a football program this year. The coronavirus pandemic has made it near impossible to draw substantive conclusions.
At TCU, for instance, starting quarterback Max Duggan missed most of fall camp after being diagnosed with a heart condition that required surgery. That came on the heels of spring football being disrupted by COVID.
How much more would have Duggan developed with a full spring and fall camp going into his sophomore season? Maybe he’d have similar numbers — 124 of 201 passing for 1,370 yards with eight TDs and three interceptions — but maybe not.
“You just take him as one example of all the time that he missed where he couldn’t be out on the field,” Patterson said. “He couldn’t lift, he couldn’t run. He couldn’t do anything because of the heart situation. So you just take that one example. Where would he be right now if he had spring ball and he had all those practices during fall camp and went through all of it? I mean, I don’t think there’s any way ... I don’t know how you do it.”
As Patterson said, Duggan is just one example. TCU has plenty more, starting with Patterson’s coaching staff.
Patterson spent much of the offseason revamping his offensive staff, bringing in longtime friend and a former head coach Jerry Kill to oversee the offense.
He also brought back Doug Meacham to coach receivers and handed him the play-calling duties. Bryan Applewhite was hired to coach running backs, and Jarrett Anderson was moved to coach the O-line.
At times, TCU’s offense has looked impressive such as rushing for a season-high 337 yards at Kansas. Other times, it hasn’t. The Frogs rank first in rushing offense, and eighth in passing offense, in the Big 12.
“For me, it’s ‘How did we get better?’” Patterson said. “Let’s just take the offensive line. We’ve gotten better. I see people say, well, they still haven’t fixed this and that. Well, to fix something, you have to have a remedy. You’ve got to have something to go to. If you only have five guys, and that’s all you got that can go play, you can’t have a remedy. There’s no other answer.
“It’s not like we get free agency and we go out and pick somebody off somebody else’s team. You’re going to play with who you’ve got, like in the Kansas game, they did an unbelievable job.”
With that being said, Patterson said the offensive staff still hasn’t been able to do all of what it wanted given the pandemic and the number of players being in and out during the season.
Patterson went on to mention fans complaining on social media about the offense not throwing the ball more at Kansas last weekend. After all, an improved passing game should help TCU win more games.
But part of TCU’s game plan against KU came down to simply wanting to get out of the game as quickly and as healthy as possible. With COVID having the potential to knock out a handful of players any given day, keeping as many healthy is a priority.
Patterson knows of a few teams that have made “gentlemen’s agreements” to fair catch punts and kicks (returns are regarded as the most injury-prone plays in the sport) and wait to snap the ball until 10 seconds or fewer are left on the play clock.
The fewer plays, the less potential for injuries.
“We’re not one of them, but I don’t think you understand [how much COVID is impacting teams],” Patterson said. “Everybody says this is how you should win and this is what you should do. No, there’s a lot of other points that go into playing a game and finding a way to win.”
The same goes for how you evaluate a program during a pandemic.
