Again, Patterson must ‘find a guy’ for holes in TCU defense
This is what they tell themselves at TCU when defensive starters must be replaced: “Coach P will find a guy.”
But Gary Patterson just smiles a smile that seems to say, “If it were only that easy.”
“No,” he said, when asked if he tells himself the same thing the players tell themselves. “But you want to get them to that point where they believe in you that much.”
Patterson has built that reputation with the Horned Frogs, and he’ll have to demonstrate it again this year with six starters gone — two linebackers, two safeties, a cornerback and a defensive tackle — from last season’s co-Big 12 championship team.
The work starts next week when fall practices begin Wednesday, leading up to the season opener Sept. 3 at Minnesota.
“I feel like we have a great chance to be as good as we were last year,” senior safety Derrick Kindred said. “A lot of guys played. Coach P does a good job. He’ll fill in. Coach P will find guys.”
Patterson has guys in mind. At linebacker, freshmen Mike Freeze, Ty Summers and Alec Dunham and junior Sammy Douglas got heavy work in the spring. At safety, Kenny Iloka and Denzel Johnson got long looks. At cornerback, Torrance Mosley and Corry O’Meally got their shots, and DeShawn Raymond would have, too, if not for a hamstring injury.
“In spring, I put a lot of emphasis on the linebacker group, and we came a long way,” Patterson said. “Here in the fall, I’ll spend a lot of time on the corners and safety, and still some on the linebackers.”
The defensive line? It can take care of itself for now.
“He wasn’t really worried about us, because he knew we had done it before,” senior defensive end James McFarland said. “He was just focusing on making sure he set a good foundation for the linebackers, so when we do go into two-a-days, they know how he wants his defense to run, how he wants things done.”
Patterson hinted in spring training that the defensive line was going through the motions. (“Bored,” he called it during Big 12 Media Days). Maybe that was understandable; missing only Chucky Hunter from last season, the two-deep defensive line — veteran tackles Davion Pierson, Aaron Curry, Chris Bradley and Tevin Lawson and veteran ends McFarland, Terrell Lathan, Josh Carraway and Mike Tuaua — has 201 games and 73 starts among them. Hunter’s replacement Curry, the Fossil Ridge graduate, didn’t play last season because he transfered, but he has 17 games and eight starts from his time at Nebraska.
“We as a defensive line, as veterans, being in this system for three years now, some of us longer than that, we know how he wants it done,” McFarland said.
Patterson sounds optimistic about the raw material. He said his linebacker group will be faster and the secondary more athletic than last season. The 40-yard dash times at the end of the spring told him that much.
“Our starting linebackers last year ran 5-flat, 4.8,” he said. “It was the slowest group we’ve ever had at TCU. The top five linebackers this year averaged a 4.5-something when we ran at the end of the spring. You’ve got everyone of those freshman at 4.5, but if I don’t get them to play fast, they’re going to play like they’re 5-flat and not play like they’re 4.5.”
What can the extra speed mean? For Patterson, a deeper playbook.
“I can put linebackers in more coverage things than I used to do in the past,” he said. “You can do things that maybe we used to do with a Darryl Washington that I had to get away from.”
As Patterson spoke during the conference media day last week, it looked like he was enjoying the chance to air out some thoughts about the defense. Clearly, he has been turning ideas over in his mind.
“That’s the whole fun,” he said. “I used to like to write music. And my creative itch of how to do that is defense. As all coaches do, you’re tweaking it and finding out what you can do well. I’ve actually probably spent more time coming off a 12-1 season of preparing for my opponents than I did a year ago, just because with this expectation level, you don’t want it to be your fault. So I’m doing everything I can as a head coach, and also as a guy who helps on the defensive side of the ball.”
This is what Patterson likes. Crunching combinations, crunching positions, crunching possibilities.
“You’ve got to replace a Kevin White and a Sam Carter and a Chris Hackett, a group of guys that in the last three years in the Big 12 picked 65 footballs,” he said. “There’s a lot of production we have to be able to replace. How do you do that?”
That question’s already been answered. You find guys.
Carlos Mendez, 817-390-7407
TCU key dates
Aug. 5: Practice starts
Sept. 3: Season opener at Minnesota
Sept. 12: Home opener vs. Stephen F Austin, 2:30 p.m.
This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Again, Patterson must ‘find a guy’ for holes in TCU defense."