TCU: The Rise of the Little School Looking to Shock the College Football World

TCU is playing next Monday night for the college football national championship against last year’s champions, the University of Georgia. This has been an unbelievable season for the Horned Frogs. Here is a bit of background of TCU football.

Legendary History

TCU, which is located a few miles south of downtown Fort Worth, was once a college football power. In 1935 the Frogs played in the first “Game of the Century” when #1 TCU played #2 SMU, with QB Sammy Baugh as TCU’s leader. SMU won, but went on to lose in the Rose Bowl, while TCU won the Sugar Bowl over LSU. In the only rating system in place at the time, the Williamson System, TCU was ranked #1 on the final standings and was declared national champion. In 1938, TCU went undefeated under the direction of QB Davey O’Brien and was proclaimed national champion after being voted #1 in the AP Poll. The annual award for best quarterback in college football, the Davey O’Brien Award, is named after TCU’s quarterback on that 1938 team.

By 1965, TCU had appeared in 13 bowl games, including 6 appearances in the Cotton Bowl, 2 in the Sugar Bowl, and 1 in the Orange Bowl, while winning 10 conference championships.

TCU had most of the success under coaches Matty Bell, Francis Schmidt, Dutch Meyer and Abe Martin. Coach Dutch Meyer’s famous quote is “Fight ‘em until hell freezes over and then fight ‘em on ice!” TCU played tough football and outperformed its small size. It was the last school to move on from leather helmets.

Dutch Meyer is credited with developing the forward pass in football. He saw Sammy Baugh throwing a sandlot football game and enrolled Baugh at TCU and developed the new offense scheme while most every team ran the ball. Meyer loved the short, quick pass, and his ideas eventually led to the development of the modern passing games.

After Abe Martin retired after the 1967 season, success disappeared for TCU.

Depths of Despair

TCU had intermittent success for the next few decades, until it seemed to slink into insignificance in the 1970s and 1980s. At the time, TCU played in the Southwest Conference, which consisted of teams in Texas plus the University of Arkansas. Southern Methodist University, its long-time rival, experienced a huge revitalization at that time and was one of the top programs in the country. It achieved the success with cash payments and other inducements, in violation of NCAA rules.

TCU boosters, in an effort to compete, turned to the same tactic. However, its coach would not go along with this and turned the school into the NCAA. SMU received the Death Penalty, a one-year total ban of playing football. TCU received a long probation with severe scholarship limitations, which people at TCU called the “living Death Penalty”. The school became non-competitive in football for the next decade. The school even had meetings where ending major college football was discussed and rejected.

It was a bad time to be so bad. TV money was changing college football and the great realignment process, which is still going on, was just beginning. College football was going from a game with local conferences to much larger regional conferences.

For the Southwest Conference, timing could not have been worse. Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the Southeast Conference, making the Southwest Conference a Texas only affair. The future was bigger conferences with more markets. TCU and the Southwest Conference were doomed.

Half of the Southwest Conference merged with Big Eight Conference to make the Big 12 Conference, which started play in 1996. The Big Eight had 2 elite football programs, Nebraska and Oklahoma, plus contenders such as Colorado and Kansas State. It did not need all 8 Southwest Conference teams to grab markets such as Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Texas and Texas A&M were the top programs in the state and were a given. Political efforts secured Texas Tech and Baylor into the new Big 12 Conference. The new conference had commanding control over the Texas TV markets, plus major cities Denver, Kansas City, and St. Louis, as well as 4 national “blue blood” programs in Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas A&M.

TCU was left out and needed a home. The Western Athletic Conference (WAC), whose top teams were BYU and the Air Force Academy, decided in 1996 to try and compete in the new world of TV money by expanding into as many markets as possible. Rather than be concerned about quality and spreading itself too thin, it gained 6 programs including three left out Southwest Conference private schools, SMU, TCU, and Rice, in the 16-team super conference.

Unfortunately, just having a team in a market, such as having San Jose State University in the San Francisco Bay area or TCU and SMU in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, does not mean that a conference would have any significant presence in the local media or even command major TV dollars or lucrative bowl game tie-ins. While the realignment world would eventually embrace the idea of large conferences, the 16-team WAC was a failure. Within a few years, five key long-term WAC teams decided in 1998 to defect and start anew in an 8-team conference, the Mountain West Conference.

TCU was ditched once again, left for dead in the evolving college football world, just as it was becoming a decent football team once again. TCU had committed to spending much more than its football revenue to support the program. Luckily TCU had rich donors and substantial wealth to do so, which was odd for what was then a 6,000-student university which accepted about 85% of all applicants. The leadership at TCU decided that having football was an important aspect of the school and having successful football would bring substantial rewards to the school in the long-term.

TCU in 1998 was mostly a safety school for those who could not get into the University of Texas or other brand-name institutions. Its major selling point, besides its rather low cost at the time (less than $8,000 tuition or so a year) was that it provided a Greek fraternity and sorority experience with 60% or so of its undergrads joining. Most of its student body hailed from Texas. It was essentially a finishing school for Texas WASPs and a local school for Fort Worth kids.

TCU had hired a new coach for the 1998 season, Dennis Franchione. He brought with him his up-and-coming and innovative defensive coordinator, Gary Patterson, with him. TCU had only won 1 game in 1997, but the Frogs went 6-5 in the regular season in 1998. Because of the defections from the conference, TCU received an invitation to play in the Sun Bowl, even though the Frogs were 5th place in their own division and there were several teams with better records than TCU.

TCU made the most of the opportunity and beat the storied Trojans of the University of Southern California, who had future NFL stars on its roster including QB Carson Palmer. TCU ran for over 300 yards on the ground, while Patterson’s defense limited the Trojans to negative 23 yards rushing. TCU won 28-19 for TCU’s first bowl win since 1957.

This season was the beginning of the extreme transformation of TCU into a major college football power. The Francione-coached Frogs would be co-champions of the depleted WAC the next two years, including a 10-1 season in 2000. Running back LaDainian Tomlinson finished fourth in the Heisman voting. Franchione then took a job offer to coach at Alabama at the end of the 2000 regular season.

The Patterson Era

TCU offered Patterson the head coaching job when Franchione left. At the time, this seemed like a risk, as Patterson was very young and had only had success as Franchione’s assistant.

TCU also moved onto a new conference in 2001, Conference USA, in an attempt to continue its quest upward in the college football ranks. TCU stayed in Conference USA only 4 years before moving on to the very Mountain West Conference that had ditched TCU a few years earlier.

Patterson’s teams were known for tough defenses that were almost impossible to run on and for ball-control offense. Patterson created a defensive scheme called the 4-2-5. This defense had four linemen and just 2 linebackers, while having 5 defensive backs. Patterson liked recruiting quick players and turn them into linebackers and safeties. The defense evolved over time to deal with new offenses, including the Air Raid.

Under Patterson, the team continued its success in CUSA, sharing a league title in 2002 with Cincinnati, and going to bowl games in three of the four years. In 2004, his defense seemed to stop working and the Frogs had a rare losing season. With a new conference the next season, Patterson reworked the defense to deal with the wide-open passing offenses that were taking over college football.

TCU joined the Mountain West in 2005. Utah had gone undefeated the previous season, winning the Fiesta Bowl as the first “BCS Buster”. BYU promoted its defensive coordinator to be its head coach. TCU, with its revamped defense, was ready for the next level.

TCU opened the 2005 season on the road at No. 7 Oklahoma. Oklahoma ran a version of the Air Raid and was setting records for offense and scoring. The Frogs were a double-digit underdog and won 17-10, giving Oklahoma its first home loss in years. The revamped defense passed its first test.

The next week the Frogs played at their long-term rival, SMU, and lost a seemingly inexplicable game. Unfortunately, they fell into a typical trap where an underdog pulls off a huge upset on the road, only to fall the next week to a weaker opponent. It would prove the last loss of the season. TCU would finish the season 11-1, conference champions, and ranked at #11 in the AP.

During TCU’s seven seasons in the Mountain West Conference, TCU would win the conference 4 times and finish below second only one time, in 2007. TCU went to a bowl game every season in the Mountain West, winning every game except the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.

Patterson had long had a “just win by one” philosophy for offense and saw offense as a way to keep the other team from scoring and giving his defense a rest. He often took new offensive players and switched them to defense. However, he gradually let his offense loose, especially with future NFL QB Andy Dalton, the Frogs, and soon the Frogs were as known for their high-power offenses as well as for defense.

After a near miss at being a BCS Buster in 2008, losing at Utah on end-of-the-game field goal, and watching Utah defeat Alabama at the 2009 Sugar Bowl, TCU demolished opponents in 2009, winning every game but two road games by at least two touchdowns. TCU rose to #3 in the BCS rankings, which would have put TCU into the College Football Playoff in today’s era. Instead, TCU played undefeated Boise State in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, losing 17-10.

The next season, TCU started off at on the same pace, never ranking below #4 for the season, yet was excluded from the BCS Championship Game. During the season, TCU accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference, which was one of the then 6 AQ or Automatic Qualifier conferences in the BCS. TCU defeated Big Ten co-champion Wisconsin at the Rose Bowl and finished #2.

In 2011, TCU received an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference, so TCU never played a season in the Big East Conference. TCU rejoined old rivals Texas, Baylor, and Texas Tech. TCU also jumped onto the Air Raid scheme itself, in a “if you can’t beat them, join them” moment. In 2014 TCU ended the season as Big 12 co-champions, though missed out on the first College Football Playoff, dropping from 3rd to 6th in the final ranking.

Under Patterson, TCU finished 1st or 2nd in the Big 12 only 3 times, with 2017 being the last season TCU finished ranked in the AP Poll. To TCU fans and other observers, it seemed that Patterson had just given up even try to compete at the highest level. It seemed he cared mostly about beating Baylor and Texas and Texas Tech and just accepting that TCU couldn’t really compete with Oklahoma or Oklahoma State or win a national title. TCU also started losing to SMU on a regular basis, coached by Sonny Dykes.

Patterson also resisted innovation on offense of defense. The school faced a conundrum. Under Patterson, TCU had enormous success at football. As a result, student applications had gone up and TCU had become a much more selective university, to the point it is one of the most selective in Texas. Tuition also skyrocketed. Enrollment went up to 12,000 students.

Donors had given millions upon millions to the university and the entire school had been largely rebuilt in addition to a complete renovation of the football stadium. TCU even had a statue of Patterson in front of the football stadium. Patterson was almost untouchable.

Patterson was still young enough to continue for years, but he just did not seem to have his heart into coaching. The players stopped listening and learning. Patterson lost the team. And Patterson would not replace his friends who were his assistant coaches that just did not seem to know how to do their jobs.

A tough decision had to be made and TCU allegedly offered Patterson a graceful exit from the team to move into administration. Instead, Patterson and TCU had a nasty break-up, one that will not heal for some time.

Under Patterson from the 2000 season bowl game to mid 2021, TCU finished in the AP poll 12 times, in the top 10 seven times, and went to 17 bowl games, winning 11 of those. The university was transformed from just another small school with modest standards and small enrollment to a very selective school with twice the enrollment and with tuition almost eight times what it was before he became coach. The investment in Patterson paid off well for the university.

The Dykes Era

Sonny Dykes was hired last November to take over as head coach at TCU. Dykes had spent the 2017 season at TCU as an analyst, and 2017 was TCU’s last “good” season before 2022. Dykes left after the season to become head coach at SMU and immediately turned the program into a fun and exciting team.

Dykes is the son of former Texas Tech head coach Spike Dykes. Dykes almost gave up on coaching after being fired as head coach at the University of California Berkeley in 2016. Dykes is a member of the Hal Mumme/Mike Leach coaching tree, having spent time as assistant, learning the Air Raid.

Dykes came to TCU knowing about the school’s dedication to football and talent, but even he would never have expected the success this season. A combination of new coaches, a few new players, and a new general philosophy has turned this team into a team that refuses to quit and is resilient in the face of extreme opposition.

Dykes understood the new rules of college football, where players can transfer easily. A coach has to work hard to keep his current players and to find transfers players that will work well for the team.

One of the most important aspects of this year’s success is that coach Dykes is a rather humble man and teaches his players humility and responsibility. He hired assistants that he thought could do their jobs and make the team better, and then let them do their jobs. The players have responded and have shown a dedication and resilience that had been lacking at TCU. No player represents this more than his quarterback, who cares more about team success than individual accolades and who leaves everything he has on the football field.

Big time college football is in a state of flux. In just two more seasons, a 12-team playoff will be in place and more teams than ever will have a real chance to win a national title. Big named schools with huge budgets do not always succeed in college football. Coaching matters. TCU might not make another run at the College Football Playoff next season, but it is likely that the Frogs will be contending for many years to come.