FORT WORTH — One of the first things Gary Patterson talked about with much gusto in his postgame interview Friday after a 20-17 loss to West Virginia that denied the TCU Horned Frogs bowl eligibility was his defense.
“Only a few times in my life, since I’ve been here, that we’ve lost when I’ve held people under 300 yards,” he said. “And that’s happened twice this year.”
Make it three times: Baylor and Kansas State. But the point remains.
Asked about his offense, forget it.
Patterson had no interest in publicly evaluating the quarterback, the offensive coordinator or anything to do with that side of the ball.
“I’m not doing that,” the 19-year head coach declared. “This’ll be done in a minute if you want to keep asking that. I’m not into selling newspapers. That’s your job.”
In fact, he was done in six and a half minutes and also declared that he was withholding from the players the privilege of talking to reporters about the game.
“They’re not very happy with me right now, and I’m not very happy with them, to be honest with you,” he said.
But what was anybody going to say about the offense?
It looks a lot like it did in 2013, the last time TCU failed to make a bowl. That year, the Frogs averaged 25.1 points a game and went 1-4 in one-possession finals.
This year, they averaged 30.3 points per game and went 1-6 in one-possession finals.
In 2013, sophomore Trevone Boykin and senior Casey Pachall combined for 2,715 yards with 14 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. This year, Max Duggan, Alex Delton and Mike Collins had 2,444, 15 and 11.
That’s a lot of numbers. Don’t get too hung up on them. All they’re saying is TCU didn’t have enough offense to win in the Big 12.
And Patterson knows it.
He knew it in 2013, too, and fixed it by hiring Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie to tear up the old playbook and do it their way. In the next two years, Boykin became a Heisman candidate, the Frogs produced a first-round receiver, and the team went 23-3 in the Air Raid.
Then Meacham left, and slowly his marks on the offense faded. Gone is true Air Raid spread. In its place is a style heavier on the run — and the Wildfrog — that looks to win time of possession and keep things safe. Probably sounds familiar.
Cumbie knows the Air Raid. He played in it at Texas Tech. He has recruited quarterbacks well, no doubt selling the idea of throwing the ball.
But quarterbacks aren’t sticking around. Shawn Robinson got hurt and transferred. Justin Rogers saw Duggan win fans’ hearts and elected to enter the portal. Delton simply walked away. Collins wants to play somewhere else next year as a graduate transfer. Matthew Baldwin presumably will get a chance to show what he can do in the spring when he’s at full health.
What kind of offense will the Frogs trot out then? Patterson gets a big say. Can he be convinced — or maybe do the convincing — on a return to the style that produces a 3,000-yard passer?
The coach will ask himself those questions later. Not after a game.
“You wouldn’t decide anything right after it happened to you,” he said. “That’s not very smart.”
Soon enough, it will become merely necessary.
