What was Gary Patterson’s record at TCU?
By John Buhler
Gary Patterson is no longer the head coach of the TCU football program.
It is truly the end of an era in Fort Worth, as longtime TCU football head coach Gary Patterson and Texas Christian University have agreed to part ways.
Patterson first arrived in Fort Worth as the defensive coordinator/safeties coach under Dennis Franchione in 1998. He followed Franchione from New Mexico to TCU, eventually replacing him as the Horned Frogs head coach once he left to be the next head coach at Alabama. Patterson took over in the interim in 2000 and became the Horned Frogs’ full-time head coach beginning in 2001.
He was the second-longest tenured college football head coach behind only Kirk Ferentz at Iowa. Here is all that Patterson accomplished the helm of the TCU football program for two decades.
Gary Patterson’s record as the head coach of the TCU football program
From serving as the interim during the Alabama Mobile Bowl at the end of the 2000 season to his final defeat to the Kansas State Wildcats last Saturday, Patterson amassed an incredible 181-79 record while at TCU. The Horned Frogs went 113-59 in conference play during Patterson’s tenure that spanned four different conference affiliations (WAC, Conference USA, Mountain West, Big 12).
12 of the teams he coached finished ranked inside of the final top 25 rankings. He won four six conference championships, including four in the Mountain West. TCU finished inside of the top 10 on seven occasions. Without hesitation, Patterson will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as the greatest head coach in TCU football history. What a tremendous career he had at TCU.
Whoever replaces Patterson in the long-term will have an impossible time living up to his legacy.
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