TCU football coach Gary Patterson must decide if this is worth the trouble | Opinion
For the third time in his career, some loyal TCU fans and followers think Gary Patterson needs to be elsewhere.
The first was in 2004, when the Frogs finished 5-6 in his third season. He has never forgotten those who said he should go.
The second was in 2013, when TCU finished its second season in the Big 12 with consecutive losing years and a record of 11-14. Gary was falling behind Art Briles and Baylor.
We are here again in 2021, only this call for change feels different.
Because college football is different.
Because Gary has been in the same job since 2001.
This new model of college football makes the already difficult job that is TCU football more challenging, and not for just any coach.
It may not be for Gary. It’s not going to be for a lot of current coaches who thrived under the century-old authoritarian model that made them supreme rulers.
TCU’s home loss to West Virginia on Saturday night for homecoming was nothing new. The defense is awful. The quarterback is not good enough to cover for the team’s many shortcomings.
TCU is .500 since the start of the 2018 season, and 13-18 against the Big 12 in that time. In this era of college football’s increasingly short term memory, coaches with that record sweat.
College football teams are like bread; they stale fast.
When the season ends in December, Patterson, 61, will have to decide if he wants to keep doing this, and adapt to a system that empowers players to do what is best for them.
Patterson’s once copied and feared program is just another 7th-place team in a power conference hoping to qualify for the www.PowerSprayer.Com Bowl.
Despite the death of Gary’s most loyal and influential fan, longtime TCU booster Dick Lowe, Patterson has enough supporters that will disregard any call to move on to another coach.
Chancellor Victor Boschini plans to retire in 2026, and it’s hard to envision him forcing Gary out unless there is a scandal.
Athletic director Jeremiah Donati has shown no indication of having even a remote desire to look elsewhere.
Gary doesn’t need to worry about the reaction of social media, although he will. He needs to make sure those influential fans in his social circle still want him as their coach.
When they don’t, he’s done.
He knows that.
If the losses mount along with empty seats, those “friends” will need more than talk and Rose Bowl stories from their favorite coach.
This is about the future of the school, and its place in the changing world of Power 5 athletics.
TCU became a nationally known school due in large part because of Gary Patterson’s football team. It’s why applications, enrollment and donations all spiked.
If those in charge believe that the football program will harm their chances of being included in any potential Power 5 consolidation, that is why he will have to go.
TCU is not there, but the conversation about the future of the school is happening.
The leaders of the university have a responsibility to ensure the future of the school, and the football team is their most effective marketing tool. A consistently bad football team affects the school’s bottom line.
The signs continue to pop that Gary may just be another great coach who just can’t keep it going. Happens to so many successful coaches.
Mack Brown. Bobby Bowden. Lou Holtz. Woody Hayes. Eddie Robinson. It was happening to Joe Paterno long before his disgraceful exit from Penn State.
A few get out before they are shoved out — Bob Stoops at Oklahoma. Bill McCartney at Colorado. Chris Petersen at Washington. Joe Tiller at Purdue.
Sometimes it’s just time.
TCU isn’t at that point, and neither is Patterson.
He is loyal to his staff; he barks at them and makes them work long hours, and he also takes care of their families. He never forgot what it was like to be broke.
He won’t want to abandon them, because he knows what happens when the head coach is out. So is the entire staff.
He does not want to go out like this.
But the job that he accepted, and elevated into a more attractive position, is no longer the same.
Coaches of his generation loathe the transfer portal, even when it benefits their team.
They can’t stand NIL.
Paying college players makes them mad.
This is part of the the job now, and while TCU will stand by him for now he must decide if he really wants to do it.
