TCU: No Need to Soul Search After Disappointing Loss, Part I

The TCU Horned Frogs took their best team in the past 50 years into Salt Lake City last Thursday, but being the best just was not enough. 

The Utah Utes have to be given credit for playing hard throughout and not giving up even though TCU mostly controlled the line of scrimmage from both sides. For the sake of the Mountain West, I will have to be cheering the Utes on, hoping they can win out, win their bowl game and finish in the top five of the BCS. 

If BYU and TCU win their bowl games it should be possible for the Mountain West to finish with three teams in the top twenty-five.

There is good reason for TCU to be disappointed. It was their third time in 10 years to threaten the BCS. Of those three times it was definitely the closest they have come. They lost in their 8th game in '99 against San Jose State and were blown out early due to turnovers against Southern Mississippi in 2003. 

This year they managed to hold on for 10 games and 59 minutes before the carriage turned back into a pumpkin.

Still, there is no reason for TCU to be pulling their hair out or wringing their hands in self-doubt. Still less is there reason to even ask how it could have happened.

Yes, TCU played well enough to win, but they also did not play too well to lose. More than TCU's weaknesses being exposed, the shortcomings the Frogs have had stubbornly lingered long enough to haunt TCU to defeat.

TCU's defense must once again be commended for an overall outstanding effort. If a unit can go into Rice-Eccles field and hold the Utes to 13 points that is about all one can ask for. 

For sure, the defense allowed a winning 2-minute, eighty-yard drive. Once again though, we must give more credit to the Utes than blame to the Frog defense. The Utes simply kept their cool and played well in the final stretch. 

At any other time in the game that drive would have ended with a field goal attempt at the TCU 26. The Utes converted a 4th down though and set themselves up for the winning TD.

Once again for the Frogs, the problems that prevented them from securing victory lay at the feet of the offense. The myriad annoyances, large and small, that have been pestering TCU both in the past two years as well as Gary Patterson's tenure manifestd themsleves in spades and eventually pulled the carpet out from under TCU.

Earlier in my 1st-quarter-of-the-season report, I winged about the TCU offense. However, I have been forced to bite my tongue since as TCU had simply been winning by too large a margin and simply scoring too many points. In fact TCU is on track to score their most points ever. 

So who can argue with success?

Gary Patterson is a great coach and he's in line to become the winningest coach in TCU history next year if he stays in Ft. Worth. But there is no mercy for a college football coach.

Coaches that are horrible and have atrocious winning percentages have so many problems with their programs that you can look at them from any angle and see glaring weaknesses. Patterson is a victim of his own success.

For Coach Gary Patterson, the focus has narrowed to the point that the only thing left is intense scrutiny in several areas, mostly regarding offense.

Certainly, as soon as we enter bowl season and heads start to roll among the teams who are not bowling, then Gary Patterson will end up on the short list (probably the bottom of it) of 5 or 6 schools around the country.  They will be scrutinizing Gary Patterson's program, his schemes and strategies to try to determine if he can take them up to the next level.

In part two of this report I will focus on Gary Patterson and take a look at the strengths and weakness his prospective employers may see.