Courtesy of TCU
Gary Patterson
TCU was a somber place on Tuesday at mid-morning, what with an overcast sky and temperatures falling into a more comfortable fall feel.
One wondered if Mother Nature might not defy the weather experts with a surprise dip into winter numbers. After all, it was believed since seemingly Abraham was a pup that hell would freeze over before Gary Patterson wasn’t the head coach of the TCU football program.
But, alas, that’s where we are at the most difficult of TCU football seasons since who knows when. Pick an era of TCU football before Patterson arrived. The moral of this sad story has been heard time and again: Nothing lasts forever; all is in flux, nothing stays still.
Not even Patterson — the iconic TCU football leader with a statue on campus — and TCU. Athletic director Jeremiah Donati informed Patterson on Sunday afternoon that the school would make a coaching change at the end of the season. Rather than stay on for the final four games, Patterson said he would leave immediately.
Like any separation, the emotions have run the gamut.
However, there is no time at TCU to either praise (though, of course, they have, as Donati did on Tuesday) or bury the coach. (And it’s fairly obvious, too, that Patterson has no intention of retiring. Donati, in fact, says he told Patterson they needed to act now to cover all the school’s bases and explore all of their options. Patterson said he didn’t want to coach the final four games because he needed to explore all of his options.)
There are things to get done promptly.