MMQB: Unrest and Underwhelming

Full disclosure, I was at a wedding this weekend and was spared the pain of having to sit down and watch our boys in purple and white (and black) get tomahawked up in Ames, so I am probably less frustrated than most of you, but I later checked out the “highlights” and it was not a fun 6 minutes.

This week we are going to do something different for the MMQB, whereas before we would do our standard “Good/Bad/POTG/QB analysis” pieces of the article, I’m going to use this as a chance to talk about the overall state of the team.

This game was basically over by the first half and while the Frogs came very close to making things interesting, we ended up letting Iowa State and “Corn Jesus” get whatever they wanted on us. This is the second time in 5 games that we have gotten out played and (deep inhale because I am about to shoot myself in the foot for what I am about to say) almost certainly out coached.

We have fantastic talent and unless it is against teams like Oklahoma and maybe Texas we cannot use the excuse of we just don’t have the talent to match. This was against Iowa State, a tough team to play at home, and I’m not trying to take anything away from them but we should not have gotten beaten by 3+ scores. We’re too good of a team to do that, at least personnel wise. You all know every week that I have a ton of thoughts on the QB situation, but I can’t blame our defense giving up long drives 3 or 4 times this game on the quarterback.

Speaking of the defense, what happened to us causing turnovers? Feels like it has been forever since we have caused havoc up front and gotten a turnover against an opponent that is on our level or better. We had 1 sack on Saturday, and while I can praise Brock Purdy for being incredibly allusive and the next coming of Randall Cunningham, you know that he’s going to do that against you so why are we not game planning the hell around that? Who knows. Maybe we are and the execution is more the issue.

This leads me to my potential come to Jesus moment about our coaching staff at the moment. While I’m not on the fire Cumbie train - he’s just too good at other aspects of the game that aren’t play calling for me to want him out of the building - other than Purdue and Kansas we just haven’t seemed prepared to come and play in the first half at all this season. I know Gary is a great coach, his track record is proof enough of that, but we are going to have to look in the mirror this offseason. Just like in 2013, we have to take a look at what our strengths and weaknesses are and from there address those weaknesses so we can get back to where this program should be. Which in my opinion, is penciled in for at least 8 wins a year.

Now there is still PLENTY of season left, and there is still a chance that we get things figured out and we begin to fire on all cylinders...but the way that we played last week makes it so difficult to figure this team out. Because, I refuse to believe that we are “bad” we have a hall of fame coach and good players at a lot of positions. I would wager that we have a better team on paper than Texas Tech, but that didn’t stop them from out-coaching Oklahoma State at home. Expecting 8 wins out of this team should not have been a benchmark where it’s “exceeding expectations” because as a program under Patterson, I believe that 8 wins is our standard, anything above that is a good season and anything below that is a not good season. I’m still holding out hope for 8-4 this year, but man it’s becoming tougher and tougher to see us pull that one out unless we come on really strong down the stretch.

I hope this article isn’t coming off as someone who’s flipping over tables and is mad online, because the truth of it is the mood is more of someone sitting on the couch, exhaling in slight frustration trying to figure out how their team can get things figured out. I feel like Kendall staring off the roof for all of my Succession-head out there.

Next week we have a bye, thankfully so that we can have more time to put in work and prepare for a trip to Manhattan to play a tough Kansas State squad. I still believe in this coaching staff, this team, and our ability to prepare for just about anyone under head coach Gary Patterson, but if we keep playing like this I think we have to make some changes on the sidelines. If anyone thinks Patterson should be fired, please don’t. I think most TCU fans are in a safe space when it comes to having concern or frustration about the coaching staff, but wanting to fire the man that built the program is not the answer chief.

Maybe all we need is some new blood in the program to get the team re-energized, or maybe we just need patience for this team to get things figured out. We have a great coach, a team that is talented, and we have Darius Anderson. We are going to win games people. Sometimes it just takes time.