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Football:
How Gary Patterson handled a rare losing season at TCU | The Star-Telegram
GP has talked often about how much he likes this team - their character and their ability. That generally results in something good on the field.
“Any time you have a season that you don’t want to have, you want to get back in as quick as you can,” Patterson said. “Really liked our off-season. Didn’t like the way we ended the season. Feel like we had to get back to being more physical. We started that in January.
For us, that’s kind of the way we’ve gone about it. Really like the team. I like the kids. Really have worked hard.”
Picking Big 12 dark horses: Texas and TCU are poised to surprise this season | CBS Sports
TEXAS IS BACK! AGAIN!
But seriously, both the Frogs and Horns have the ingredients to surprise some people this season, based on preseason projections.
As a result, the expectations for Gary Patterson's team have dropped a bit -- the media poll for 2017 has the Frogs finishing fifth in the conference -- but I wouldn't be surprised if we see a much stronger finish than that.
TCU has one of the most experienced teams in the conference this season. In fact, using Phil Steele's two-deep breakdown, the only Big 12 team with more experience is Oklahoma State. The Frogs also have a veteran offensive line, and when it comes to recruiting, TCU has fared well lately, too. In fact, over the last five years, the only two Big 12 teams to recruit better than TCU are Oklahoma and Texas.
TCU’s Gary Patterson Comments On College Football Playoff Selection Criteria | The Spun
I loved what I saw in one of the post-Big 12 Media Days pieces, citing Patterson’s willingness to be open and controversial because he has the job security that most in the conference do not. So, with Stoops’ surprise retirement, he’s become the voice of the conference, and the one willing to stick his neck out a bit. It’s going to be vintage Coach P this season, and I am a-ok with that.
This past season, the Buckeyes again reached the College Football Playoff, but in a much different way. Ohio State failed to win the Big Ten, but had a strong enough resume to become the first team not to win its conference in the event.
Monday, TCU head coach Gary Patterson commented on the criteria chosen to select the four teams for the event. He says that his program and Baylor’s were told that a championship game mattered back in 2014. But obviously, in 2016, it didn’t.
The Big 12 adding a championship game was stupid, but necessary | The Comeback
Stupid, but Necessary. Pretty sure we have the Big 12’s new slogan.
The Big 12 needs the statement that a title game makes. The committee (and popular perception) do not value the Big 12’s strength: the nine-game, round robin schedule. Big 12 teams get crushed for poor out-of-conference schedules. But we ignore them playing an extra conference game. Arkansas plays TCU non-conference, thus justifying its other three non-conference games against Florida A&M, New Mexico State, and Coastal Carolina. Baylor plays a ninth conference game against TCU and gets ridiculed for scheduling Liberty, UTSA, and Duke.
From Muleshoe to Big 12 Rileys enjoy life of football | KU Sports
I love hearing GP talk about what he’s looking for in a recruit and how he finds the right fit.
“One of the things that everybody’s talking about right now with players, kids want to decommit,” he said. “Well, a lot of it is because they get talked into going to a place they don't know anything about. They just read the name, and they really don't fit in. We've got to get back to kids going to our campus and see if they like the coaches, see if they like everything.”
Patterson even has a name for it.
“We call it the Frog factor at our place,” he said. “If they like everything at TCU besides football, they're going to have a great experience. They like the academics, the people there, they like the way we coach, they like the personnel as far as their position coach, they like the head coach, then they're going to stay, and they grow up, and they do the things they need to do.”