A quarterback from Iowa. A punter from Australia. A lineman from that perennial TCU recruiting hotbed of . . . Ohio?
Even a defensive back signee from the roll-the-dice capital of the neon world, Vegas!
Indeed, the first batch of TCU’s 2019 recruiting class, signed and sealed Wednesday, seems like another bumper crop of below-the-radar, staff shopping finds.
Which means, if tradition holds, four or five of them will rise from their relative obscurities and be cloaked in NFL jerseys long into the 2020s.
But this is what Gary Patterson and his staff do. While other college football recruiters scour the rating-service marquees, selling their souls for the four- and five-star thoroughbreds, Patterson and his guys know what they want and modestly go after it.
The Frogs are ranked a composite No. 31 in the recruiting lists after Wednesday’s signing day. Nothing new there. There wasn’t a downtown pep rally, nor a parade down Main Street featuring the Aledo kids.
In Alabama, I’m guessing that football signing day is a statewide holiday. But Patterson didn’t even hold a press conference.
It was a working day, a day of bowl preparation.
“Our duct tape group here,” Patterson said, alluding to his team’s injury-thinned depth chart.
No offense to the fine folks in Phoenix who put on the game, but Patterson probably doesn’t want to make the Cheez-It Bowl an annual habit. He’d like to get back into the New Years Six rotation.
When you finish 6-6, though, you go where they tell you to go – beaches not necessarily included.
And that means the coaching staff has to find time to prepare for and orchestrate bowl practice, and still seal the deals on December signing day, not to mention something called Christmas.
Patterson learned his football Christmas lesson 10 years ago, when the Horned Frogs traveled to San Diego to face Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl. The game was played Dec. 23, and when Patterson awoke from his customary football season coma the next morning, it was Christmas Eve and he had few, if any, gifts under the tree for Mrs. Patterson.
Yikes.
That, he explained, was when he started using the patent-pending Gary Patterson Christmas Folder Method to shop for Mrs. P.
“If she finds something she wants, she tears it out of the magazine or prints it out, and she puts it in the folder,” the coach said.
And then he does what every husband does – he buys everything on wife Kelsey’s list.
If only recruiting was that easy.
It’s been written many times now, but Patterson and his coaches don’t shop for stars. They shop for football players.
Senior Ty Summers is the most recent example. He was headed to Rice to play quarterback. Patterson turned him into a star defensive end and linebacker.
If there is one common bond in the most recent class of recruits, Patterson said, “A lot of them come from real good families.
“That was real important to me — the type of person and the families.”
A meddling parent(s) can ruin a player’s college experience. Ask Mike Leach about the insufferable Craig James.
Every coach gets his share.
Patterson didn’t want to talk about it Monday, but his latest case of suspected parental over-involvement cost him a quarterback. Shawn Robinson, who started the season opener and seven games in all, is transferring to Missouri.
Patterson was on the road recruiting, when the Robinsons informed offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie that Shawn wouldn’t be returning.
“That was his family’s decision. I wish him well,” Patterson said, cutting the discussion short.
Patterson didn’t say it, so let me fill in the blanks. Mistake-prone Robinson wasn’t going to be handed the No. 1 quarterback job next fall. He was going to have to earn it from a group that is expected to include Mike Collins, Justin Rogers and freshly signed Iowan Max Duggan.
Robinson threw nine touchdown passes this season, but he also had eight passes intercepted. One interception altered the team’s fate dramatically – the ill-advised shovel pass against Ohio State – and the other at Texas sent the season into a tailspin.
That’s what happens with young, inexperienced quarterbacks, at least the ones not named Tagovailoa. They make mistakes. They cost you games.
Four, at minimum, seems to be the average. Robinson, sure enough, was 3-4 as the TCU starter.
Patterson and Cumbie have to be considering that as they think ahead to the fall. If Rogers or Duggan start, it’s likely not going to be an entirely smooth transition.
Patterson gave a hint of the Frogs’ plans when he said Monday, “When all the bowls are over, possibly a grad quarterback if there was one out there.”
Like Jalen Hurts, I suggested, mostly in jest.
“Uhhp, I can’t,” Patterson said, shaking his head.
To me, it was an odd reaction for such a half-serious remark. I know Patterson can’t comment about recruiting another team’s graduated players. I just found his immediate, self-conscious reaction surprising.
But think about it. The demoted Alabama quarterback walked the commencement stage in Tuscaloosa this week. He’s not going to hang around Nick Saban’s bench for his final season.
Hurts’ dad Averion said last summer that if his son announced he was transferring, Jalen would be “the biggest free agent in college football history.”
The elder Hurts was only overestimating a little.
Jalen likely could have his choice of around 20 Power Five programs when it comes time to transfer, maybe more. His old QB mentor, Lane Kiffin, would certainly want him at Florida Atlantic. And Florida State supporters are openly pining for Hurts to come to their grad school.
I can’t see Hurts, however, transferring to another Southeastern Conference school. Why would he want to play Alabama next season?
So scratch Texas A&M, Auburn and Florida off the transfer list.
The Hurts family lives in Channelview, outside of Houston. That would make for a long trip each week if Jalen decided he wanted to go to Oregon. Or anywhere in the Big Ten.
Texas already has a quarterback. That leaves only two Power Five programs that will need a quarterback next season, will be returning enough talent, and are within driving distance of Channelview, Texas – Oklahoma and TCU. And only one of those has a championship-level defense.
So you’re saying there’s a chance?
Well, it’s Christmas. Who knows what Patterson has in his folder?