Patterson agrees to statue on TCU campus for sake of benefactor

Gary Patterson is ready for that statue he’s been asked about for years.

“Oh, I don’t know if I agreed,” the TCU coach said Monday after the Horned Frogs arrived for the Alamo Bowl. “Those kind of things are for when people, they go away.”

But at least it appears that plans for the statue are in motion.

TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini told the San Antonio Express-News that Patterson has given the OK to place a statue of him in the plaza outside Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena next to Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Asked about it Monday by reporters, Patterson said he’s on board with the idea because he wants the benefactor to see it.

“There was a gentleman that for five, six, seven years has allotted a lot of money to do something like that — not just mine, but a couple others,” Patterson said. “And so he hasn’t been in great health. So I agreed to do something so that he’d get an opportunity to see what it was all about. For me, I don’t need those kind of things to be successful. As the chancellor said, if it helps TCU, then great. But for me, I’m just trying to win football games.”

Patterson is in his 15th year as head coach at TCU and 18th overall since he arrived as defensive coordinator on Dennis Franchione’s staff. At 142-47, he is the all-time winningest coach at TCU. Last season, he was the Big 12 coach of the year after the Horned Frogs switched to the Air Raid offense and won a share of the conference title coming off a 4-8 season.

“He’s taken us to BCS games, we’ve won big games, he’s been very close to winning national championships — in my opinion, he’s the best coach in the country,” running back Aaron Green said. “I mean, he’s put TCU on the map, so I think it’s well-deserved. ... He’s not really the type of guy that takes all the credit to himself, but I definitely think he deserves it.”

Loves Fort Worth

Patterson said Sonny Cumbie, offered the offensive coordinator position at Texas three weeks ago, opted to stay in part because of Fort Worth.

“Sonny loved Fort Worth,” Patterson said. “He’s a small-town Texas kid that doesn’t like the big city. And one of the things he really liked was the way Fort Worth was. Usually, when you make decisions like that, they turn out good because you made them for the right reason. You don’t make them for money. We’ll just see where that eventually takes us.”

Cumbie is scheduled to talk to reporters on Thursday.

Green said retaining the co-offensive coordinator was important.

“It was big,” he said. “I know I won’t be here next year, but I was happy to see that. I want to see my university to do well. We’ve got a lot of people coming back next year, especially on offense. With him coming back and Doug Meacham, I think it’s just going to be awesome.”

TCU secret

Patterson said other schools are trying to find out what makes TCU tick when they hire away assistants.

“They want to know how we evaluate talent, how we recruit, how we do the off-season, how we do a lot of things,” Patterson said. “They’re not just hiring somebody anymore because they’re a good position coach or a good coordinator. They’re hiring people because TCU’s been around a long time, and they want to know why TCU’s been able to sustain and win and how we go about things.”

Patterson said Cumbie, Meacham and co-defensive coordinator Chad Glasgow will get other chances to take jobs.

“They’ll all get their opportunities to go on,” he said. “For me, as a head coach, you don’t want a lot of turnover because I think it hurts your program. But I do believe when you have guys leave, the one thing you want to do is be able to help them better their lives and be able to spread your wings a little bit and leave your legacy. So for me, it’s awesome that guys get a chance to do it.”

Injury update

Defensive tackle Aaron Curry, unable to play in the season-finale against Baylor, will play against Oregon.

Everyone else is healthy, Patterson said, besides the 10 players lost for the season to injury.

Receiver Ty Slanina posted on a Facebook account that he re-broke his collarbone in practice.

Slanina and Deante Gray, who missed the season recovering from knee surgery, had been practicing with the scout team.

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Patterson agrees to statue on TCU campus for sake of benefactor."