FORT WORTH, Texas — There is one person on the planet who understands TCU’s predicament, and he no longer works there.
Gary Patterson built it, and he wore this fight on his visor, his sleeve, and the multiple shirts he would wear during a game.
Now, he’s on the other side. It’s his job to help put the team, and the school, that made him back “in their place.”
The Gary Patterson Bowl brought to you by SweatyGolfShirts.com is fascinating, and not quite fun for everybody. For select audience members, Gary Patterson versus TCU is excruciating.
No. 4 and undefeated TCU is a 7-point ‘dog for its game at No. 18 Texas on Saturday night in Austin.
It is ridiculous that the No. 4 team in the nation is a widely accepted underdog, but this is part of the enabled insanity of college football where fairness is actively discouraged.
No one would have loved this setup more than Gary. Because no one understood it better.
If Texas does win on Saturday, no one will understand TCU’s pain more than Gary. It’s why he won’t celebrate much if “his Horns” win.
He knows exactly what one loss does to TCU, and how every single Horned Frog player, coach, fan and administrator will feel if it goes down the way Vegas projects.
A one-loss TCU is not treated the same as a one-loss Oklahoma, a one-loss LSU or any one-loss Big Brand State Football College.
Such is life when you’re the small private school not named Notre Dame, and you’re trying to be taken as seriously in a room with Texas, USC, Bama, Ohio State and the rest of the blue bloods in a caste system.
TCU has a lot of money, and it will spend it on whatever but Amazon Prime doesn’t offer perception enhancement.
In his 20-plus years at TCU, no one could have done more to create a positive perception of his football team more than Gary.
Gary Patterson was born with chips embedded in both shoulders, both arms, both legs, all 10 toes, his eye sockets, and every hair follicle and vocal chord. As such, he was the perfect coach who understood TCU’s inferiority complex that it battles in the modern era of college athletics.
Every year he went into this cauldron preaching that both he and TCU could upset the system, and beat the teams they were not supposed to beat, and play the games they weren’t supposed to play.
Often times they did just that.
They did it by reaching the Fiesta Bowl, winning the Rose Bowl, and building a collection of moments and memories that were not supposed to happen at a place like TCU.
A single loss at the wrong (any?) time screws all of that up.
Patterson is currently an assistant on Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas, but most of the players on TCU’s roster are his guys. There is a relationship.
TCU quarterback Max Duggan, receiver Quentin Johnston, running back Kendre Miller, that offensive line, defensive back Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson and so many others were recruited and signed by Patterson.
A lot of these young men spent time at Gary’s house, and would be considered friends by both the man they call “Coach P” and his wife, Kelsey.
That the program was in need of updating is self evident, but nearly all of these players are at TCU due mostly to him.
Players pick the head coach more than they do the school; it’s why ex-players will pay their loyalty to the head coach often more than they do the university.
Gary had some “differences” with select members of the TCU administration stemming from their “request” that he step down at the end of the 2021 season, and he still loves both the school and Fort Worth.
He raised a lot of money for various Fort Worth charities over the years, and he cares deeply about TCU and the city.
Gary always “got” that he’s not where he is without TCU giving the assistant coach who wasn’t so great in front of a microphone a chance to be a head coach back in 2000. As a result of the hire, both he and the school grew exponentially.
TCU is not in this position today without him. Sonny Dykes, his staff and team deserve the credit for this 9-0 start, and it doesn’t happen without Gary.
Even if Gary’s Horns win on Saturday night, he will feel this one for TCU.
No one lived games these, and this predicament, like he did.
