Patterson aims to keep Frogs fresh for chasing UT’s Heard

TCU coach Gary Patterson said he is not going to run the legs off his defensive line this week as they prepare to chase Texas quarterback Jerrod Heard on Saturday.

He believes he made that mistake the past two weeks preparing for SMU’s Matt Davis and Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes.

“We’re going to do something different,” Patterson said. “I had my defensive line chasing all over the place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I thought we were tired when we played SMU, and I thought we were a tired football team on Saturday.”

Davis ran for 62 yards and two touchdowns against TCU two weeks ago. Mahomes had 36 yards and one touchdown, although he played most of the game with a leg injury.

Heard, a redshirt freshman from Denton Guyer, leads the Longhorns with 295 yards rushing and has scored three touchdowns — despite not starting until the second game.

Patterson gave the Horned Frogs a day off from practice Sunday, opting for a run and film study, in part because of the length and lateness of the Tech game combined with the morning kickoff coming against Texas.

And this week, there is not going to be much chasing around of a scout-team quarterback playing the role of Heard.

“We understand what we’re going to have to get into, but we’re not going to expend that kind of energy,” Patterson said. “We’re going to learn what they do and understand we have to play that guy at 11 o’clock.”

LB overload

Patterson blamed himself for asking too much of sophomore linebacker Travin Howard, one of the converted safeties playing the position.

“We asked him to play nickel, and we asked him to play linebacker,” Patterson said. “I gave him a signal to tell him when he was going to play one or the other, and that was a little bit too much for him to be honest with you.

“He got tired. We should have gotten him out more. And he also played 16, 17 plays of special teams.”

Howard led the Frogs with 10 tackles and had a sack, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.

“He got burned a couple times, but we asked him to do a lot,” Patterson said after the game. “He’ll learn from experience, and he’ll get better next time.”

Gaining an edge

TCU opened the game at Tech with a receiver pass from freshman KaVontae Turpin, a play Patterson might never have considered before the move to the “Air Raid” offense two years ago.

“I’ve changed a lot in the last two years, to be honest with you,” Patterson said, then smiled. “I’ve never laid a guy down in the end zone.”

The line, referring to a trick kickoff return against Oklahoma last season, drew laughs at the press conference. But for Patterson, gaining an edge in the offense-rich Big 12 is a priority.

“In this league, you have to steal chances,” he said. “You have to steal opportunities — if they’re there. And if they’re not, then you’ve got to be smart.”

Safety scrutiny

Patterson said the safeties have been “good enough to win the last three ballgames,” but indicated that the position still needs help.

“I’ll be honest with you, we’ve got to get better at that position,” Patterson said when asked about Michael Downing’s play in his second full game since replacing Kenny Iloka. “I need to probably rotate Ray in, also. We need to get better at that position.”

Ray is Ridwan Issahaku, a redshirt freshman safety from Norcross, Ga., who saw his first action last week.

Strong sympathy

With the way Texas has lost its past two games, Patterson was asked if he feels for coach Charlie Strong.

“We’ve got some guys on offense who aren’t going to play this week,” Patterson said. “Everybody’s got their own problems. Do I feel for them? Yeah, I understand it. But everybody’s got their own problems.”

Patterson joked that Strong might trade his problems for Patterson’s.

“We’ll talk about it, I’m sure, in the off-season,” Patterson said.

Awards for Boykin, Doctson

Trevone Boykin’s 485 yards passing last week earned him the Football Writers Association of America’s national offensive player of the week award. He completed 34 of 54 passes, and extended his streak of games with a touchdown pass to 19 — the longest active streak in FBS.

Earlier in the week, he won the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week and Big 12 offensive player of the week awards.

Receiver Josh Doctson won the Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week and the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose National Player of the Week awards.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 8:13 PM with the headline "Patterson aims to keep Frogs fresh for chasing UT’s Heard."