Patterson Meets With The Media
10/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 13, 2009
FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU football coach Gary Patterson held his weekly media luncheon and news conference Tuesday as his eighth-ranked Horned Frogs prepare for Saturday's 3 p.m. home game versus Colorado State.Included below are excerpts from Patterson's comments to the media.
Opening Statement ...
"We're glad to be back home. We have a really tough challenge this week in Colorado State. If there's a better 3-3 team out there, I'd like to know who it is."
On whether Saturday at Air Force was the coldest game he's been a part of ...
"No. When I was at Utah State, we were playing in Reno and it started out as a beautiful day. Everybody was in short sleeves and then all of a sudden, we had snow blowing in sideways. I had snow packed high on top of my headset. By the time the game was over, the sun was back out. For an hour and a half, though, it was tough. Both teams have to play in it, so you just go about your business."
On the challenges Colorado State will pose ...
"Offensively, they have two senior wide receivers who can really run. They throw a lot of balls over the heads of the defense. They have their entire offensive line back, with four seniors, and have really started to gel. They have a junior college running back who has been getting better and is starting to run the ball like the guy they had a year ago who did such a great job. We will have to stop the run but also keep enough back so we can help double-cover guys running vertical routes. That makes for a tough match-up.
"On both sides of the football, they have really evolved to doing a lot of things they did in the 1990s when they were winning their league every year. They are all over the place, moving around. You've got to find them when they are zone blitzing. They are very opportunistic and are getting takeaways.
"They have put their wide receiver, Dion Morton, back in kickoff and punt returns and he is very explosive. He'll make one guy miss, and then you're not going to catch him. They are looking for somebody to make a big play. We've got a lot of work to do to win this game."
On getting into the heart of Mountain West Conference play ...
"Every week is a new challenge, because there are a lot of good coaches in this league. When you play people outside of your conference, you do what you do because they don't know you. Once you get into conference play, everyone has seen what you do and how you do it, so you have to be better and come up with new wrinkles. When you add new wrinkles, that means your players have to learn it also. It just comes down to players and how well they do what they do. You can fool them once but, after you have played them, you aren't going to be able to fool good coaches again."
On being on the negative side in turnover margin ...
"Obviously, we would love to have more turnovers on defense. The concerning thing is the ones we have had inside the 20-yard line. It's one of those things that if you talk about it, you'll start thinking about it and then you do it. For us, it's better to address it and then move on. We know that we can't do it against good football teams. I'm not as surprised defensively, because we have a lot of new players. Older players get more takeaways because the game slows down for them."
On TCU's position in the national polls ...
"That stuff doesn't mean anything to me. Right now, it's about taking the next seven games, one at a time, and finding a way to score one more point. Take any season in the last five years and tell me what the scores were. I can't remember them. I can tell you the score of the Utah game a year ago, but that's because it's still in my mind. People don't remember the scores. All they care about are the wins and losses. At the time, it makes a difference. Right now, for us, we are just trying to find a way to win at every place we go."
