FORT WORTH, Texas — He’s no longer the head coach, and he’s employed by another university, but Gary Patterson should be in Los Angeles when TCU plays for the national championship.
However awkward it may be for a few minutes, he should be at SoFi Stadium at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
TCU is not in this game without him.
He’s still friends with many prominent TCU boosters; one of them should offer him a spot in their suite and let him watch the game in person.
While he is still an analyst at the University of Texas, certainly head coach Steve Sarkisian and athletic director Chris Del Conte would not stop Patterson from going to L.A. to show his support.
Other than an encouraging couple of tweets, Patterson has been mostly quiet about TCU reaching the title game.
On Dec. 31, he Tweeted, “So proud of the Frogs! Congrats! Now go win it!”
On Dec. 3, he Tweeted, “This tweet is for the Frog family, Big 12, State of Texas and being left out in 2014. Good luck and Go Frogs!”
Not a complete shock, but he did not respond to an interview request for this column. Given the nature of some of my commentary over the years during his TCU tenure, I can’t blame him.
He can’t really “win” this sort of thing; if/when he does speak publicly about TCU’s season, critics will say he’s trying to make it about him, and taking the credit for this team’s current success.
For those who forgot, Patterson “resigned” from the position as TCU’s head coach on Halloween in 2021. He was essentially asked to retire after the end of the season; he opted to do it effective immediately.
He and his wife, Kelsey, made an appearance at TCU’s last home game that season, against Kansas, for Senior Day. He joined Texas’ staff in the spring as a defensive analyst.
TCU’s entire 2022 season has to be bittersweet for the former head coach who had seen this through like few other people in college football in the last 20 years.
It’s equally surreal that TCU is not only in a national title game, and Gary Patterson is not the head coach. You would have previously thought that they had to go together.
However you cut it, Patterson deserves credit for the success of this 2022 season. The degree is a personal preference.
It’s one of the reasons why new head coach Sonny Dykes has gone out of his way to mention Patterson frequently during the season.
Patterson’s finish at TCU was not ideal, but the beginning and middle were not just good but transformative.
Gary grew into the job as TCU grew all over the map. He became the single face of the program, which ultimately worked against him.
“Coach Patterson has stayed in contact with me,” TCU senior quarterback Max Duggan said this week.
Patterson recruited Duggan, and most of the current roster, to TCU. Patterson stuck with Duggan many times during his first three years even while he struggled to find the consistency that eluded him until this year
“We’ve talked throughout the season. He has a lot of support for all of these guys in our program. He’s been watching from afar and rooting for us,” Duggan said. “It’s been great to see him continue support us, and continue to stay in contact with guys he recruited.”
Gary worked 25 hours a day to make TCU better, relevant, and a winner. The execution was not always perfect, but the intention could never be questioned.
The same for the results until, finally, they were no longer there.
The success of TCU in 2022 is the justification that the administration needed to explain to some angry members of its influential community that moving on from Patterson was the right call. There were a lot of hurt feelings over this decision.
Patterson has kept his house in Fort Worth, and he could remain on Sarkisian’s staff at Texas for the 2023 season. He has made it known he would like to be a head coach again.
He should be.
He was good at it.
So good he’s a big reason why TCU is the title game, where he should be to at least watch in person what he helped build.
