Patterson Holds Weekly Presser
9/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
The 25th-ranked Horned Frogs (3-0, 0-0) host No. 3 Oklahoma (4-0, 1-0) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
Included below are excerpts from Patterson's meeting with the media.
On TCU having two early bye weeks ...
"It was alright. It was a little bit tougher the second time to get everyone fired up. The biggest part is that it helps everyone mentally. It helps with the mental freshness and the evaluation of the team. Being able to evaluate more guys, improve your team in certain drill work and doing those things without getting hurt are some of the positives. Going into October, with the amount of talent we play against in these four weeks, I believe the team, University and Fort Worth are excited about it. We're now getting ready to go."
On his team preparing to begin Big 12 play ...
"I think we are a lot further along than where we were. After the SMU game, I thought we played a little bit better than what we initially felt like."
On Oklahoma ...
"They're not the same, but there are some similarities with what we have to stop. There's some carryover from the Minnesota game, but there are things you have to do that involve stopping the three or four wide receivers. Their skill guys are all really good. They have one of the better offensive lines and then you put it with the defense that runs like it does. Our kids are up to the challenge. In this game, you have to play in the secondary. They're really good at play action. You have to stop the run and make tackles. Offensively, you have to play better on third downs. When you get down there you have to score points. They're good, and they're a (Oklahoma head coach) Bob Stoops team."
On improving his team's third-down efficiency ...
"A lot of it has been penalties. You have to be consistent and catch the ball. You can probably point at every phase. That's what coaches do. First, you look at yourself. They've been very opportunistic for not being as good as we need to be in third downs. We have scored a lot of points doing so. The other positive is Trevone (Boykin) hasn't turned the ball over."
On being ranked this week ...
"I was proud, especially for the kids. They've put in a lot of hard work, and I've been telling them not to worry about that stuff. If you play well enough, people notice. As I tell them, when you play a ball game and it's outside the conference, that's your resume. Everybody else in that conference gets to watch you play. If you want votes, the only way they can do it is to turn on the film and say, `Look at these guys.'
"Media has preseason polls and all these other things, but then you have to go play. We're ranked 25th, but the team we're playing is third and the team we play next week is sixth. You then have another team that's ranked in the top 25 the following week. Our entire aspiration, to get where we want to be, is to raise our level to go play for a conference title. That's what TCU wants and what I want."
