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| -- Photo by Bob Dixon |
TCU head football coach Gary Patterson hasn’t been too fond of being masked on the sideline of TCU’s first three games during this 2020 coronavirus pandemic college football season.
If his Frogs, and especially their offense, continue to perform as they did this past Saturday, October 10, against an underdog, but more energized Kansas State team, he may desire to be masked and incognito on the TCU sideline for his team’s remaining games.
A week after Horned Frogs quarterback Max Duggan was being hailed as the second-coming of Andy Dalton, and TCU was the toast of Fort Worth for its 33-31 victory over then ninth-ranked Texas in Austin, Duggan and his teammates were slammed back to reality, 21-14, by a big, strong, well-coached Kansas State team, in Amon G. Carter Stadium (Midnite had predicted a 34-24 TCU victory).
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| Tom C. "Midnite" Burke |
It is not known if coaches have to return their weekly awards when their team suffers a staggering upset the week after they were showered with love and confetti.
However, one thing’s for certain. Patterson will come closer to receiving a Grammy for his work in 2020 than a Coach of the Year Award. At this stage of the season, he has recorded twice as many songs (two) as gridiron victories (one).
Through three games of this nine-game season, the Frogs are 1-2 overall and in the Big 12.
Saturday’s baffling loss was Patterson’s second consecutive to Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman, who is in his second year of coaching in the big leagues. Last year, Kansas State whipped the Frogs, 24-17, in Manhattan, Kansas.
The Frogs and Patterson now are 4-5 against Kansas State since TCU joined the Big 12 in 2012.
As a result, after the loss, Patterson penned a song. Listen: here
Klieman credited his team’s togetherness as the foundation of the Wildcats’ win, which built on Kansas State’s 38-35 upset of Oklahoma two weeks prior and improved K-State to 3-1, 3-0 in the Big 12.
In celebration of the victory, Klieman penned a song. Listen: here
Patterson and TCU long have aspired to be mentioned in the same breath nationally as the Big 12’s flagship programs of Texas and Oklahoma.
This year, they are among that “elite” company.
The Frogs, Longhorns and Sooners are a surprising and disappointing 1-2 in the Big 12 and unranked. The trio most likely are out of the race for a spot in the conference championship game, with Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Kansas State ahead of them, and undefeated in league play.
Actually, over the last decade, TCU has been among the conference’s elite teams. Other than Oklahoma, the Big 12 has had a team ranked in the final AP top 10 only six times in the past 10 years — three by TCU (2014, 2015, 2017) and one each by Oklahoma State (2011), Baylor (2014) and Texas (2019).
And, of course, since joining the Big 12 in 2012, TCU is 7-2 against Texas.
However, in games leading up to, and directly after the game against Texas, TCU is 5-13.
Ouch!
Patterson and his coaching staff continue to struggle in coaching the Frogs to wins in close games.
Going back to last season, the loss to the Wildcats was the Frogs’ eighth one-score loss among its nine losses (TCU was 5-7 last season). The only loss that wasn’t by one score was Iowa State’s 25-point victory in Ames, Iowa.
Against Kansas State, TCU wore for the second time in two seasons its Halloween-themed Nike Fierce Red uniform combination; anthracite jersey and pants and fierce purple helmet with a red Horned Frog. TCU first wore this combination in last year's 37-27 home victory over Texas. TCU now is 1-1 when wearing this controversial, non-traditional uniform combination.
Despite the Horned Frogs having signed top-25 classes in the nation in three of the past five years, TCU is 6-9 over its last 15 games, and 3-8 over its last 11 games.
Hardly elite status.
Amon G. Carter Stadium now may be a luxurious home on college football Saturdays for the rich and famous, but it apparently has lost its “home-sweet-home” appeal. Patterson and the Frogs sadly are in the midst of a four-game losing streak at The Carter.
After losing their first two home games this season, the Frogs essentially have lost the edge on an every-other-season conference schedule that tilts in TCU’s favor, with the Frogs having heavyweights Iowa State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State at home and only leaving Texas for two conference games (West Virginia and Kansas).
After going 5-7 (3-6 Big 12) and missing a bowl game as one of the Big 12’s lower-echelon teams last season, TCU must win at least four of its final six scheduled games (not counting the postponed SMU game if it indeed is played later in the season) to finish the 2020 season with a winning record.
TCU still has to play Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Kansas and Oklahoma State. That is, unless the coronavirus intervenes.
Most of this season’s bowl projections don’t include TCU. If the Frogs don’t go bowling this year, it will be the second consecutive TCU football season to end without a bowl game, and the fourth in Patterson’s 20-year tenure as the head coach.
Patterson now has lost five straight games to three of the Big 12 Conference’s new coaches, going back to last season.
Patterson is 0-2 against Matt Campbell of Iowa State: a 49-24 loss last year, and the 37-34 loss in this season’s first game.
Campbell took over at Iowa State in 2016. The first three years that Campbell was at the helm of Iowa State, Patterson beat him twice, in 2016 and 2018. So, overall, he is 2-3 against Campbell.
Patterson is 0-2 against K-State’s Klieman: a 24-17 loss in 2019 and last Saturday’s 21-14 loss. Klieman became Kansas State’s head coach last year.
Paterson is 0-1 against Neal Brown of West Virginia: a 20-17 loss in Fort Worth in the last game of 2019, Brown’s first year with the Mountaineers. That harrowing loss sealed the Frogs’ losing season and kept TCU out of a bowl game for the third time in Patterson’s then 19-year TCU head-coaching.
This season, Patterson and the frogs will confront Brown and the Mountaineers on November 14, in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Prior to seeking revenge against Brown and the Mountaineers, Patterson will face off against the newest coach in the Big 12 Conference, Baylor’s Dave Aranda, in Waco, on October 31. That could be a spooky encounter.
Speaking of the much-hated Bears, because of a coronavirus outbreak within its program, Baylor has temporarily halted all football activities, and the Bears have postponed until December 12 their game with Oklahoma State. That game had been scheduled to be played this Saturday night (October 17), in Waco.
It's not the first time this season that the coronavirus has affected Baylor.
Baylor had its game against Louisiana Tech on September 12 postponed after Louisiana Tech had a COVID-19 outbreak among its players.
Baylor called off a September 19 game against Houston, because the Bears failed to meet the Big 12’s minimum threshold to play (53 players with at least seven offensive linemen, four interior defensive linemen and one quarterback).
Texas fans probably are wishing that the Longhorns’ annual Red River Shootout last Saturday with the University of Oklahoma in Dallas’ Cotton Bowl had been canceled, just like the State Fair of Texas had been canceled weeks earlier.
The Sooners bounced back from two consecutive Big 12 Conference losses, to Kansas State and Iowa State, and handed Texas its second-consecutive conference loss, 53-45, in four overtimes.
Texas quarterback Sam Ehrlinger rallied the Longhorns from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime at 31-31. Oklahoma’s defense intercepted him to end the game in the fourth overtime and earn the Sooners the coveted golden cowboy hat trophy.
The victory was Oklahoma’s third consecutive win over Texas. The combined 98 points is the most for one game in the series, which began in 1900 and has grown to 116 games.
Because there was no State Fair of Texas taking place outside the Cotton Bowl, disgruntled Longhorns fans weren't able to stuff themselves with corny dogs, funnel cakes and deep-fried oreos and twinkies after the football game.
With the loss to the Sooners, the pressure continues to mount on Texas head coach Tom Herman.
Herman is in his fourth season leading the ‘Horns. He has lost at least four games each year, although he did have a 10-win campaign in 2018.
If Texas boosters want change, they reportedly will need to come up with a minimum of $35 million to pay his three-year buyout and pay his staff and the first year of a new staff.
If Texas is looking for a new head football coach after this season, former Florida and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer and San Francisco 49ers coach and Texas-ex Kyle Shanahan supposedly would be two prime targets.
This past Saturday was even wackier in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Because of coronavirus infections, Vanderbilt had just 56 scholarship players available in its 41-7 loss to South Carolina.
Because of coronavirus infections, Vandy has postponed its scheduled October 17 game against Missouri.
The scheduled October 17 game between LSU and Florida also has been postponed, because of at least 19 coronavirus infections within the Florida football program.
At least 30 collegiate football games have been canceled or postponed this season, including this Saturday's scheduled game between Tulsa and Cincinnati, which is dealing with COVID-19 issues.
Missouri had its challenges with the coronavirus this past Saturday, but prevailed in an unlikely, but inspiring manner.
The unranked Tigers, missing some players due to coronavirus infections, beat defending national champion and then 17th-ranked LSU, 45-41.
In the closing seconds of the game, Missouri’s defense, to preserve the win, denied LSU’s offense the end zone four times from the one-yard line.
It was the first win for new Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz. The victory came in front of a home crowd in Columbia, Missouri, because the game had been moved from LSU’s campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, due to Hurricane Delta.
Because of the loss, LSU dropped out of the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2017.
Mississippi, under first-year head coach Lane Kiffin, scored the most points ever scored against Alabama by an unranked team in the modern area, but the Rebels lost to the Tide, 63-48.
The previous week, Mississippi upset Kentucky, 42-41, in overtime, for Lane Kiffin’s first win in his first year as the Rebels’ coach.
Several days after the Alabama-Mississippi game, it was announced that Alabama head coach Nick Saban and Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Then 13th-ranked Auburn avoided being upset by Arkansas by connecting on a winning field goal with seven seconds left in their game. The previous week, Arkansas broke a 20-game Southeastern Conference (SEC) losing streak by upsetting No. 16 Mississippi State, 21-14.
Texas A&M upset fourth-ranked Florida, 41-38, on a field goal as time expired. It was multi-millionaire Jimbo Fischer’s first victory over a top 5 team since taking over the Aggies’ football program in 2018 for a measly salary of $75 million over 10 years.
In No. 3 Georgia’s 44-21 victory over No. 14 Tennessee, Georgia wide receiver George Pickens got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty while his team’s defense was on the field; he squirted water on Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano.
Guarantano had been shoved to the Georgia sideline on a first-down run. Pickens, who was on the sideline with the Bulldogs’ offense, sprayed water on the Tennessee quarterback while he was on the ground.
One of the SEC’s most noted alums, Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott, as the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, suffered a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle in a game this past Sunday against the New York Giants.
Prescott was replaced by former TCU and Cincinnati Bengals star Andy Dalton. Dalton helped lead the Cowboys to a 37-34 comeback victory, as Greg Zuerlein kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired.
Prescott has had season-ending surgery, so Dalton is the Cowboys’ new starting quarterback.
Against Kansas State on Saturday, if it had not been for Duggan, who started his second consecutive game after having a longtime heart defect corrected earlier in the year, the Frogs’ offense would have been even more anemic than it was against the Wildcats.
Duggan, showing tremendous heart and toughness for the third game in a row, accounted for 199 yards of TCU’s season-low 342 yards of offense against Kansas State.
Duggan completed 19-of-31 passes for 154 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions.
Duggan ran for 45 yards, including a three-yard touchdown run late in the game that accounted for the final 21-14 score.
Duggan delivered results even though throughout the game he was under heavy pressure and constantly battered by Kansas State defenders, who recorded three sacks and six tackles for loss.
For as long as footballs have had laces, two indicators of a well-coached football team have been solid offensive line play and minimal mistakes.
This was the third consecutive game that TCU’s young offensive line, under the first-year guidance of new offensive line coach Jarrett Anderson (who has been on the TCU coaching staff for 23 years), has been pummeled by opposing defenders, even though sophomore center Steve Avila was just named to the watch list for the Rimington Award, which is given to the nation’s best collegiate center. Avila left the Kansas game with an injury. The injury and his status have not been announced.
TCU's offensive line unbelievably has given up 10 sacks and 24 tackles for loss through three games. In the first game of the season, Iowa State had six sacks and nine tackles for loss. In their loss to the Frogs, the Longhorns had one sack and nine tackles for loss.
Because of the physical abuse he had taken from K-State defenders, Duggan had to leave the field late in the third quarter to have x-rays taken of his battered body.
Duggan returned to game action, but while being x-rayed he was replaced for two series by backup quarterback Matthew Downing.
It was one series too many.
Downing, who started and played the first half of the Frogs’ season-opening loss to Iowa State, led a three-and-out drive on his first series.
During his second series, Downing’s sixth play of the game was a terrible pass that K-State senior cornerback AJ Parker intercepted and returned 37 yards for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown, as the Wildcats took a 21-7 lead.
Parker, who also deflected a pass in the fourth quarter and had six tackles, earned Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Because of Parker and his K-State defensive teammates, there were few offensive bright spots, other than Duggan, for the Frogs.
Redshirt freshman running back Darwin Barlow made his first career state and had the Frogs’ first touchdown in the game, a seven-yard run in the first quarter that gave TCU a 7-3 lead. Barlow had a career-high 56 rushing yards on eight carries. He had a career-long 28-yard gain on his second carry of the game.
The Frogs amassed 189 rushing yards. Freshman running back Kendre Miller had 38 yards rushing on seven carries. Junior wide receiver Derius Davis had 24 yards on one carry and senior wide receiver JD Spielman had 19 yards on one carry.
Five-star true freshman running back Zach Evans had two carries for four yards.
Eleven Horned Frogs combined for the team's 19 receptions, although the team’s receiving corps will be getting thinner.
Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Al’Dontre Davis and junior wide receiver Dylan Thomas have entered the transfer portal.
With 21 offers out of high school, including LSU, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas A&M, Davis was a three-star recruit and a top 300 prospect in the Frogs’ 2017 class.
Thomas was out of Fort Worth Paschal. As a member of the class of 2016, he chose TCU over SMU, signing as a three-star wide receiver. His TCU career consists of 25 receptions for 301 yards and two touchdowns.
Against Kansas State, redshirt freshman wide receiver Blair Conwright had a career high in receptions for the second straight week with a team-best six catches for 60 yards. He had a team-high five receptions for 52 yards in the previous week's 33-31 win at Texas.
Through three games, Conwright is leading the team in receiving, with 176 yards.
Redshirt freshman running back Daimarqua Foster had a career-best four receptions for 29 yards against Kansas State.
Through a trick play, Duggan had his first career reception, on a pass from Spielman.
Alas, the play went for no gain.
The Frogs’ offensive struggles were the reason TCU lost to a Kansas State team they should have sent back to the Sunflower State with a loss.
The Frogs went three-and-out five times and turned the football over once, on the interception that resulted in the game-winning touchdown.
TCU converted only five-of-17 third-down plays.
Placekicker Griffin Kell had a 48-yard field goal attempt blocked in the second quarter.
The Frogs generated no offensive consistency against the Wildcats.
To many TCU fans, the team’s three offensive gurus – Jerry Kill, Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie -- seem to be struggling to gel on an offensive philosophy that effectively utilizes the talents of the team's offensive play-makers.
Patterson and Kill are run-first coaches. Meacham and Cumbie have never seen a pass play they didn’t like.
As a result, the offense seemed to be in disarray against Kansas State, with a constant rotation of running backs and receivers. It’s almost as if during this unprecedented season, Patterson and the coaching staff are making victories less of a priority than in-game development of young players who may become superstars.
Meanwhile, the Frogs’ defense, which had been gutted for 68 points in the season’s first two games, had its best game, giving up a season-low one touchdown, and two field goals, to the Kansas State offense.
TCU held the Wildcats to a season-low 289 yards of total offense; 172 on the ground, 117 through the air.
In the Big 12, when your defense holds a team to less than 300 yards of total offense and only one touchdown, you should be celebrating a win, not digesting a bitter loss.
The TCU defense held the Wildcats on 10 of their 13 third-down plays and 21 points under their season scoring average of 35 points.
Kansas State’s offense was led by true freshman quarterback Will Howard.
Howard made his first career start because senior starting quarterback Skylar Thompson was injured in K-State’s previous game against Texas Tech and did not make the trip to Fort Worth. Thompson since has undergone season-ending surgery for an upper-body injury.
Howard completed eight-of-19 passes for 117 yards. He threw no touchdown passes. He was intercepted once, by TCU sophomore safety Josh Foster.
The interception was the first K-State giveaway of the season. It also was the first career interception for Foster, who was playing because in the first quarter starting safety Ar’Darius Washington was ejected for targeting.
Howard burned the Frogs for an 80-yard run and a 45-yard pass to highly regarded true freshman running back Deuce Vaughn, but otherwise the TCU defense held in check the duo, which basically is the extent of K-State’s offense.
Howard, however, was the quarterback who left Amon G. Carter Stadium with a win. He was honored by the Big 12 Conference with its Newcomer of the Week honor.
In once again leading TCU’s defense, senior linebacker Garret Wallow had 10 tackles, including two for loss, for his first double-digit tackle game of the season and 11th of his career.
In the fourth quarter, senior defensive tackle Corey Bethley recorded his first sack of the season to give him 9.5 in his career, the most among current Horned Frogs.
Sophomore defensive end Ochaun Mathis had his first sack of the season on the snap after Bethley's sack. Mathis has 3.5 sacks in his career.
Junior cornerback Noah Daniels had a career-high seven tackles, with one for loss, and a pass breakup.
The Frogs will need that same stingy defense, but a heck of a lot more offense, in their next game, which after a bye this Saturday, is against Oklahoma, on Saturday, October 24, in Amon G. Carter Stadium. Kickoff is at 11 am. ABC will televise the game.
Oklahoma is 2-2 overall, 1-2 Big 12. In addition to beating Texas, the Sooners won their season-opening, non-conference game over Missouri State, 48-0, in Norman. They lost to Kansas State, 38-35, in Norman, and to Iowa State, 37-30, in Ames.
Oklahoma is averaging 41.5 points and 502 yards per game; 358 yards passing, 144 yards rushing.
The Sooners’ offense is led by redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler (#7). He has completed 92-of-129 passes for 1,186 yards. He has thrown 13 touchdown passes and five interceptions. He has run 35 times for 67 yards and two touchdowns.
Rattler is backed up by redshirt sophomore Tanner Mordecai (#15). He has completed 19-of-24 passes. He has thrown one touchdown pass and one interception.
Fifteen different Sooners have caught passes.
Sophomore H-back Austin Stogner (#18) has caught 17 passes for 230 yards and one touchdown. He has a long reception of 31 yards.
Freshman wide receiver Marvin Mims (#17) has 15 receptions for 196 yards. He has four touchdown receptions and a long catch of 58 yards.
Redshirt junior wide receiver Charleston Rambo (#14) has caught 15 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns. He has a long reception of 53 yards.
Redshirt junior H-back Jeremiah Hall (#27) has caught four touchdown passes.
Junior running back T.J. Pledger (#5) leads Oklahoma’s rushing attack. He has run with the football 46 times for 219 yards and two touchdowns. He has a long run of 26 yards.
Freshman running back Seth McGowan (#1) has racked up 181 yards on 34 carries. He has two rushing touchdowns and a long run of 23 yards.
Redshirt freshman running back Marcus Major (#24) has rushed 23 times for 74 yards and one touchdown. He has a long run of 21 yards.
Oklahoma’s offense has allowed 11 sacks. The Sooners have lost three of six fumbles.
Opponents are averaging 30 points a game against Oklahoma’s defense, while rushing for 96.5 yards per game and passing for 246 yards per game.
The Sooners' defense has intercepted three passes, recovered two fumbles and recorded 12 sacks.
Redshirt sophomore linebacker Brian Asamoah (#24) leads Oklahoma’s defense with 27 tackles. He has two tackles for loss.
Junior safety Pat Fields (#10) has 22 tackles. Junior safety Delarrin Turner-Yell (#32) also has made 22 tackles. Plus, he has two sacks and an interception.
Junior linebacker DaShaun White (#23) has four tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. Redshirt outside linebacker Nik Bonitto (#11) has 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. Redshirt junior defensive lineman Isaiah Thomas (#98) has 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
Oklahoma holds a 15-5 series lead over TCU. The Sooners have won six in a row over the Frogs (2015-2019), including the 2017 Big 12 championship Game.
Last year, TCU’s worst offensive game of the 2019 season nearly turned out to be the Horned Frogs’ most noteworthy game of the year.
On November 23, in Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, in Norman, TCU only scraped together 204 yards of total offense, but the Frogs nearly snuffed the College Playoff dreams of then-No. 9 and Big 12 first-place Oklahoma.
Thanks to a defensive stand late in the fourth quarter, the not-so-Boomer Sooners, who were on their way to yet another Big 12 Conference championship, eked out a 28-24 win over the Horned Frogs on OU’s Senior Night and on prime-time television.
TCU was driving for a go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes remaining in the game when Oklahoma defensive back Brendan Radley-Hiles intercepted a fourth-down pass from Duggan.
The Horned Frogs are 2-7 versus the Sooners in Fort Worth. TCU last won in Fort Worth, 37-33, in 2014, when Bob Stoops was Oklahoma’s head coach.
Despite four opportunities, Patterson has never beaten Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, who has been the Sooners’ head man since 2017. Riley is the only head coach who has beaten Patterson twice in one season.
Patterson’s losses to Riley include: last year’s 28-24 loss in Norman; a 52-27 loss in Fort Worth in 2018; a 38-20 loss in Norman during the 2017 regular conference season; and a 41-17 loss in the 2017 Big 12 Championship game in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Patterson is the dean of Big 12 coaches and has been one of the best coaches at making in-season adjustments.
He’ll need to make some adjustments during the Horned Frogs’ bye week, if he hopes to avoid a seventh consecutive loss to Oklahoma and a fifth consecutive loss to Riley.
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