Patterson Holds Weekly Presser
9/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 15, 2009
FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU football coach Gary Patterson held his weekly news conference Tuesday in the Four Sevens Team Room inside the Dutch Meyer Athletic Complex and Abe Martin Academic Enhancement Center.The 15th-ranked Horned Frogs make their 2009 home debut when they host Texas State on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Included below are excerpts from Patterson's comments to the media.
On TCU's win at Virginia ...
"There is no substitute for winning, especially on the road. There are a lot of teams that only have four road games, because they play all four on their non-conference games at home. Going on the road and earning a win against a team in the ACC is good. The positive is that we won, and we feel like we didn't play our best. That is where you want to be as a program. If we felt like that was the best game we could play all year, everything else would be downhill from there. We made some mistakes and we understand the things we need to do better. We still have a lot of growing up to do, and I think that is a positive."
On the play of the Horned Frogs' offense at Virginia...
"I thought our offense looked good. It was one of the best offensive line efforts we have ever had. Virginia is a very big and physical group upfront, and we ran for over 200 yards. We only had one turnover early, and we didn't throw any interceptions. That's a positive for us. Our whole thing is that we held the ball for 35 minutes and controlled the game. At the end of the game, they don't give you style points. You're either 1-0 or 0-1. For us, we are 1-0 and that's all we wanted to be. The shorter you can make the game, the less likely you are of having someone get hurt. We've won a lot of football games around here by doing that."
On how Virginia tried to handle TCU All-America defensive end Jerry Hughes ...
"In the second half, after he got the sack, they started to double him with the guard and tackle. That is why we had three of our sacks from the tackle position. They were trying to use two guys to block him. He had a good game. He had 11 tackles and took part in a couple of sacks, and that is with us only playing 51 snaps on defense."
On Texas State ...
"We are going to play a really good passing team. They have a senior quarterback (Bradley George) who played five years of professional baseball, is older, 6-foot-6 and can move the ball around. They are really talented at the wide receiver position. They were in the playoffs a year ago. They have a very consistent defense and they can wing it offensively. For us, it's going to be a great challenge. They've had two weeks to prepare and two of their offensive coaches (Kevin Brown and Travis Bush) were graduate assistants here. In fact, a lot of their offense has the same things that we do. They know us very well and how we prepare. When you give them two weeks to get ready for us, it will probably be a barn burner."
On TCU's goals for this week ...
"You want to get better as a team. To be ranked No. 15 in the nation and be a program with a status like that, you need to come out and practice on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and play on Saturday, because that is where you belong. If you want to take a day off, then you won't be there. The whole thing still comes down to people's opinion and votes. We have to go play and get better as a football team."
