TCU offense’s soaring potential another challenge for Patterson

An unusual task awaits Gary Patterson when practice starts this week — tamping down expectations for his offense.

They have never been this high.

“Everybody has told me there’s always another level the second year,” the TCU coach said. “Kind of like last year, I’m going to wait and see what the difference is.”

But how much more ceiling do the Horned Frogs have with their attack? They were top-five nationally in yards and points per game, set 14 school records and topped 600 points for the first time in school history.

“They aren’t going to be able to do a whole lot more than they did last year,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said.

That’s not a slight. It’s a testament to how well the Frogs and quarterback Trevone Boykin operated in their first season in the spread offense, which Holgorsen knows well from his time at Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, where he coached with TCU co-offensive coordinators Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie.

“What you saw toward the end, they were were scoring a bunch of points — that’s probably where they’ll pick up starting Game 1,” Holgorsen said. “Boykin’s considered potentially the best player in the league. They’ve got two wideouts that are great. Their O-line got better every single game. Last year, they got better the whole year. This year, they’ve got a chance to be the same the whole year.”

Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, another expert in the Air Raid offense, said, “You usually evolve a ton. Trevone had such a great year last year, he’s got a great group of skill players to get the ball to — I just see him continuing to get better. That’s scary for the rest of us.”

Which is also scary for Patterson. He doesn’t want the Horned Frogs counting yards and points already.

“I’ve talked to the whole offense about it,” he said. “Going into Year 2, having not been known for offense, is just handling success — understanding that winning is the most important thing, and the rest will come. They don’t have to score more points, have more yards. It’s going to be how we play on the road in six tough road games. It’s going to be hard to win those games by the margins we had last year.

“If there’s any place I need to build confidence, it’s defense. But I probably need to tone down the other side.”

Boykin said he gets that. He said the Horned Frogs not only have a veteran offense that gets that, but also a veteran team that gets that.

“We have a lot of older guys that know how to deal with success, and I feel like we’ve done that in a pretty good way,” he said. “We’ve been coached in a pretty good way, so we know how to deal with success. We don’t let it get to our head. We just need to get these young guys on board and try to let them know what TCU football is all about and get them on the same page we are.”

In the spring, Patterson said one of the benefits of a second year in the offense is the understanding of how to practice. Last year, the Horned Frogs came to realize how many passes would be thrown in a practice and the number of receivers required to keep a crisp tempo. Veteran players such as Josh Doctson and Kolby Listenbee had to learn the practice rotation as much as the younger receivers.

For Patterson, any improvement this year will come from an improvement in the basics — throwing, catching, blocking.

“Throw in a few bells and whistles, but it’s about being better at what you do than other people are, and plugging in good players,” he said.

So what’s next? How much better can the TCU offense be?

“A lot better,” Boykin said. “You can go watch any game. I feel like we left points on the board all the time. When you go back and watch film, you can always see things you can get better from.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 2:51 PM with the headline "TCU offense’s soaring potential another challenge for Patterson."