FORT WORTH — Gary Patterson hates to say he told you so.
But he told you so.
Low-energy practices. An opponent his team had defeated seven times in a row. Much energy expended the week before.
Nearly two full decades into being a head coach, the TCU boss knew what it meant. Trouble, that’s what it meant, and that’s what he got in a 41-38 loss to SMU last week that left his defense in tatters and his offense explaining how it could have fumbled the ball literally and two short-yardage situations figuratively.
“I told a lot of you guys in this room that you’ve got to be careful last week because of the way they were playing and we were coming off an emotional win,” Patterson said Tuesday at his weekly press conference in the Four Sevens Team Room on campus. “For me, you’re asking me if I was surprised we got beat. I was surprised in the way it happened.”
Yeah, defensively, mainly.
The Frogs gave up more than 400 yards and, critically, couldn’t do anything to stop two drives in the fourth quarter that delivered 10 points to the Mustangs.
Patterson knows. Over the weekend, he told himself how.
“The only person to blame in the whole situation was me. We gave up 41 points,” he said. “I was too aggressive. We made some mistakes, had some people out that probably, at the end, we didn’t know were going to be out, so we didn’t get guys ready. But the bottom line to it is, probably too aggressive getting people to the box to stop the run. And we didn’t make plays doing it. Had not put those guys in that kind of situation to this point.”
Patterson doesn’t have to worry about that any more. That is, the emotional part. Or lack of it.
“The stress of that game for me is more than any game I have left,” Patterson said. “Every year.”
Kansas is the first of nine Big 12 games that will make up the rest of the season. And tell the story of it. Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and West Virginia — in that order.
With apologies to SMU, which fair and square showed it was the better team last week, that’s not a bunch of SMUs and Purdues and Arkansas-Pine Bluffs.
“Today is Tuesday, so we’ll see what practice is as far as motivation and everything else you do,” Patterson said. “I didn’t see as much fire that we got beat and let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Uh, oh. There’s a told-you-so in there somewhere.
So … Kansas?
“They’ve got good wide receivers, and they’ve got two good tailbacks, to be honest with you,” Patterson said. “Les Miles is a good guy and a good coach. He’s a good motivator. He’s won wherever he’s gone, and he’s changed programs. Enough said when it comes to all of that stuff. Defensively, they’ve always seemed to play us well. We’ve got to get ready to go and find a way to win.”
Patterson never even mentioned last year in Lawrence. Wasn’t asked about it. After last week, did he have to be?
Somewhere along the line, he’s already told us so.
(Photo by TCU Athletics)
