4 reasons why Texas football could dominate TCU

The Gary Patterson effect

A subject that everyone is talking about this week heading into the Texas-TCU game in primetime on Nov. 12 is the matchup with former TCU head coach and special assistant to the head coach Gary Patterson.

Patterson was TCU’s head coach for roughly two decades until he was fired last season. Around six months after TCU let him go last fall, Patterson joined Texas’ staff as a special assistant. And it looks like he’s made a big impact on this defense making some real strides on the field this season.

You have to credit both Patterson and co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski for the improvements we’ve seen out of Texas’ defense this year.

But this Texas-TCU game will obviously shine a very bright spotlight on Patterson and how he can scheme up this defense to take advantage of flaws in the TCU offense. He might also have some tricks up his sleeve to help Sark exploit some lesser-known issues on the TCU defense.

Many of the TCU players that Dykes has on the two-deep on both sides of the ball are returnees from Patterson’s team last season. In fact, Patterson and his former coaching staffs recruited most of the active roster for TCU this fall.

The degree to which Patterson knows this TCU team like the back of his hand, combined with the motivation he’ll have after getting fired by the Horned Frogs last year, could be lethal for Texas.

I expect that we’ll see some of the stunts and formations that Patterson liked to use at times at TCU to get some pressure on Duggan and limit the effectiveness of the many skill weapons Dykes has at his disposal.

Maybe we see some delayed safety or nickel blitzes to confuse Duggan and the TCU offensive line. Or Patterson and PK could continue to expand Overshown’s role as an edge rusher when Texas finds a matchup advantage in some 11 or 12-personnel TCU offensive formations.

But those are just some guesses as to what we could see schematically from Texas’ defense with the help of Patterson in preparation for TCU.

No matter what, I expect there to be some Patterson fingerprints that show up in the blitz schemes and defensive plays we see from the Longhorns this weekend. Patterson’s knowledge and preparation are just too impactful not to think that he will play a role in Texas’ defensive formations in this game.