Gary Patterson's press conference, about UVA and the upcoming game with SMU:
Coach is at the mike, and we can hear him. He says:
SMU kicked our butts on both sides of the ball last time. The officiating was terrible.
We never got any kind of apology or anything.
They’ve had two weeks. Zach Line is a good ballplayer; their receivers can really run. On defense they have good players, like (DE Margus) Hunt.
About the timing of the game this year: It’s not good or bad.
You gotta give Virginia credit—nobody runs the ball on them. (Q: Georgia Tech?) Had we still been in the MWC, that would have been a big win-- an upset over an ACC team, after upsetting a Big 12 team. We can't turn the ball over 6 times in the red zone-- we've done that in two games. We'll start seeing better skill players this week. We haven't played our best football game yet.
THis week we gotta go on the road; you gotta win on the road-- no matter who you're playing-- to win championships.
No overall assessment about the true freshmen to date; it depends on the player and the play. Aviante Collins played well, except for one big miss that resulted in a three yard loss. It's an eye-opening experience for all those guys. Kind of like when you put your 15-year old in the car the first time; the only way they get better is experience and drive time. Like I said before the season, we haven't played our best ball, but we've found some way to win. This week's no different-- we don't care if it's ugly-- we gotta find a way to win. We have to be better this week to win than last week. We gotta find a way against Iowa State. Baylor has two weeks to prepare, then they're Texas Tech. In media days Texas Tech says TCU is the game they want to win because people were saying they cancelled against TCU last season because they were scared.
I don't know if the SMU series is going to continue or not. I don't know. You gotta look at it, about how you do your whole non-conference schedule, not just SMU.
Last week the defense finally began to get the game plan on Friday. We had a lot of tests-- freshmen don't handle that well; they have to stay up to 12 with a tutor, then take a test the next day, then go to practice and take a pounding. It's not what a normal college student does.
We don't get too high or too low; we're not on a vendetta against SMU. We need to get to 4-0. We're not looking for revenge or anything. Good programs don't do that kind of thing. If I'm going to teach young poeple to be the right people, I gotta act right, too. But I'm still not taking back what I said about the officials. If I need to say somehting to June JOnes, I call him on the phone. He's a good man.
In this world, wins and losses is what keeps our job, but in the end it's about what people think about you that counts. There are a lot of good SMU people in Dallas and here, I've talked with them over the last 365 days. Except for the 3 hours on game day, we stay friends.
Differences in SMU's team: they lost a lot of starters on the o-line, two QBs, lost a really good safety. They have good players; they've gone to several bowl games. We have to game plan specially for Margus Hunt. Last season they out-coached us last season. They put a pull-over jersey on a linebacker for kickoffs, and we didn't catch it. It's a fine line if you're allowed to do that without telling the officials. We won't be caught by that this year. We need to get ready to play-- in both the Baylor and the A&M games, they were in the game at halftime.
I have to be more perfect with this younger team-- how you call plays, how you work with them-- it's just like raising kids. You don't pay as much attention to your 17-year-old than you do with your 9-year old. I like this group. It's not just them-- it's me, too. This group here likes to play the game. You watch the game on Saturday-- we made mistakes, but we played hard. If you play hard, you give yourself a chance, and you're not going to get hurt. Teams that get hurt-- go back to Boise a year ago. UNLV did not have a great record; Boise had an off weak, went there at night, in Vegas, UNLV was really physical. Boise had 4 players that got hurt and didn't play against TCU. THey didn't get mentally ready to play the ball game. People don't understand how important that is. We've had more injuries non-contact out her eon the field. You gotta get ready to play.
We got nine games left, stair-stepping as we go.
Josh Boyce has to keep being a leader. He's really really good when he's into it. He likes to play in the big games. He's like Casey-- he has to get that ready for all of 'em.
Stansly Maponga has been double-teamed for two games. That means he's really good-- and he is. We gotta help him out.
Chris Hackett will start this week. He played most of the UVA game.
Being a football coach here at TCU, in my sixth conference, hasn't changed. I just want to make this program the best it can be. We keep it in perspective. Being a Big12 team doesn't make us any good-- winning in the Big 12 makes us good. We're just trying to build and do it the right way.
We beat an ACC team Saturday with two talk-on linebackers: Stoltzman and Hasley. I'm not going on vacation because we're 3-0; Randy Shannon must be a miracle worker. He and I have coached a few good linebackers; we kind of know how to get 'em in place and do what they need to do.
It's finally football season-- it's fun to watch the intensity down to the last second at K-State and OU, or ULM taking two SEC teams to overtime. I take more antacids and baby Aspirins. It's a lot different-- you know when you cover a story and write a piece that nobody will watch, then when you cover the Rose Bowl. You put more into it. Coaching is no different; if you don't get ready every week, somebody will get you.
Adding a new guy on the staff-- each week we've had better chemistry. We're getting better at knowing how to ask the questions. Continuity is a big deal.
About the bad officiating of the SMU game last year-- even officials would say that was a badly officiated game.