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Patterson puts his defense on blast after lackluster practices
It is only natural for athletes who play an emotional sport in which so much is on the line from week to week to feel a letdown after suffering the first loss of the season.
TCU coach Gary Patterson, though, isn't feeling sorry for his Horned Frogs, whose playoff hopes dropped from No. 8 to No. 15 in the College Football Playoff rankings this week following the 49-29 loss at new No. 8 Oklahoma State.
Patterson was not pleased with a couple of lethargic practices this week and he let his team know it. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Patterson began his Wednesday media interview after practice with a rant that put his young defensive players in his crosshairs.
"They need to find out how to do it themselves,” Patterson said. “Simple as that. As you can tell I wasn’t happy with practice today.”
This has been one of Patterson's most difficult seasons because of multiple season-ending injuries to starters in the opening month of the season. Patterson has been forced to move players out of their natural positions and use more younger, inexperienced players than he ever imagined. The results haven't always been pretty, but TCU's explosive offense has always been able to bail out the defense.
That didn't happen at Oklahoma State. Quarterback Trevone Boykin threw four interceptions and the offense was limited to 29 points. It made the Cowboys' four touchdown passes of 48 yards or more too much to overcome.
Patterson was letting his unit know that if it plans to play in another major bowl, it can't afford another outing like that against Kansas this week, and especially Oklahoma and Baylor after that.
"They better get ready to play or it won’t be me taking blame for us playing bad,” Patterson said. “I’ll start using names, which I’ve done here before. My advice is, they better come ready to play tomorrow.”
