FORT WORTH — TCU head coach Gary Patterson isn’t mad. He’s just not very happy.
“We’re not going to a bowl game,” he said. “And I’m not happy with them. Because we gave it away, to be honest with you. Not emotional, not mad, matter of fact. Simple as that."
TCU (5-7, 3-6 Big 12) lost 20-17 to West Virginia Friday, ending the Frogs’ hopes of making a bowl game. TCU led for most of the second half, but West Virginia (5-7, 3-6) quarterback Jarret Doege found Isaiah Esdale for a 35-yard touchdown with 2:10 left to give the Mountaineers the lead.
The Frogs had all three timeouts after Esdale’s touchdown and started at their own 20 yard line with 2:05 left. They went four and out, giving West Virginia the ball back with just over a minute left. The Mountaineers also went four and out, and the Frogs had a slim chance to tie the game.
TCU started on its own 35 with 46 seconds and no timeouts left. Quarterback Max Duggan found Jalen Reagor for a 15-yard gain on the first play, but the Frogs couldn’t do anything else with the ball.
The offenses, perhaps still suffering from tryptophan-induced effects after Thanksgiving, were not at their best all game. TCU finished with 297 yards while West Virginia had 244, and there were a combined five interceptions. Neither team averaged more than 4.5 yards per play.
Patterson is keenly aware than when his defense holds teams to under 300 yards, TCU is overwhelmingly likely to win. West Virginia and Baylor have bucked that trend this year.
“Only a few times in my life since I’ve been here that we’ve lost when I hold people under 300 yards. And that’s happened twice this year,” Patterson said. "There won’t be any players talking. They’re not very happy with me right now and I’m not very happy with them to be honest with you.
“I feel sorry for my seniors I couldn’t get them back to a bowl game. Simple as that.”
Taking stock
Rumors have flown all season about TCU potentially replacing offensive coordinator Sonny Cumbie. The Frogs entered Friday as the No. 58 offense in the country. Patterson was asked if he had started evaluating making changes on staff.
“That started in August,” Patterson said. You gotta be good at what you do. You don’t decide December 1 to go evaluate. I’m not doing that. This’ll be done in a minute if you want to keep on asking those questions. I’m not aiming to sell newspapers. That’s your job.”
As to why the offense struggled in the passing game against West Virginia, Patterson said he hadn’t taken stock of that yet.
“I don’t have an evaluation of that yet,” he said. "Like I said, you wouldn’t decide anything right after something happened to you. Would you? That wouldn’t be very smart.”
The Frogs found themselves in long yardage situations on offense several times after false start and holding penalties. Patterson wasn’t very happy about that, either.
“We got guys that say that want to be NFL guys, and we’re going 2nd and 15 because we can’t stay in there. We need to get ready to play.”
How it happened
TCU received the opening kickoff and immediately handed the ball back to West Virginia. Max Duggan threw a third-down pass that bounced off Jalen Reagor’s hands straight to Mountaineer safety Tykee Smith. Smith returned the pick back to the TCU 14, and four plays later, Doege hit a wide-open Leddie Brown on a wheel route for a score with 10:40 left in the first quarter.
The Horned Frogs responded later in the quarter when Sewo Olonilua took a “Wild Frog” snap and rumbled in for a score. That touchdown was set up by a 64-yard run on a jet sweep by wide receiver Taye Barber.
TCU’s defense was able to lock down West Virginia for the rest of the half. The Mountaineers didn’t make another trip inside the TCU red zone before halftime. WVU had success floating passes out to Brown and fellow running back Kennedy McKoy in the flats. That success was negated by Doege’s first two picks of the season. Julius Lewis and Ar’Darius Washington each had an interception, and both were on highlight-reel plays.
At the start of the second quarter the Frogs mounted a 54-yard, 11-play drive that ended in a 30-yard field goal from Jonathan Song. TCU benefitted from a late hit penalty by West Virginia on a Duggan run. The Frogs had first and goal from the West Virginia 7, but wound up moving backwards six yards before trotting out Song. The senior kicker is 23-24 on field goals this season.
West Virginia came back on the following drive with a 40-yard field goal to tie the game. McKoy and Brown each had big gains after running short routes. TCU avoided disaster when a targeting call against linebacker Garret Wallow, the leading tackler in the Big 12, was waved off.
On the Mountaineers’ first drive after halftime, Washington notched his second interception of the game. He played centerfield and leapt in front of an underthrown ball from Doege. TCU couldn’t capitalize on the turnover, however, and punted it away.
The Frogs took the lead again on a 70-yard punt return touchdown from Reagor with 10:32 left in the third quarter. Reagor made a couple of men in the first wave miss, then was all alone for the final 40 yards as he high-stepped his way into the end zone. That was Reagor’s second return touchdown of the season -- the speedster also housed one against Kansas.
Duggan threw his second interception of the game on TCU’s next drive. The third-down pass was slightly tipped at the line of scrimmage, but it was a poor decision from the start. Intended receiver Artayvious Lynn was surrounded by three West Virginia players and Sean Mahone came away with the ball for the Mountaineers.
A long run by McKoy took West Virginia inside the red zone. The TCU defense was able to hold the Mountaineers to a 24-yard field goal, which narrowed the Frogs’ lead to 17-13 with 1:25 left in the third quarter.
The two teams traded punts for a while before West Virginia found itself with the ball at its own 39 with 4:47 left in the game and two timeouts. The Mountaineers opted to go for it on 4th and 1 from their own 48 and got a lucky break after TCU was called for pass interference. The Frogs bailed out West Virginia again on the next set of downs, as Ross Blacklock was ejected for targeting and roughing the passer on an incomplete third down pass.
Then Doege found Esdale on the play that effectively ended TCU’s year.
“We got them stopped, and we had a personal foul, roughing the quarterback,” Patterson said. "Go down the list of things. It wasn’t just one thing, I can tell you guys right now. We hurt ourselves in net punting, we needed better punts.
“There’s a lot of things that could’ve been different. I go down the list. Not just the offense, I can tell y’all that right now.”
This is the first time the Frogs will miss a bowl since the 2013 season. It’s only the third time they won’t play in the postseason in the Patterson Era. The coach drew parallels to the 2004 season, the first time he missed out on a bowl game.
“In 2004, we got beat by Tulane,” he said. “We couldn’t make it on the one or two yard line, and they went 98 yards and scored. And it was one of the best things that ever happened to us, that we didn’t go to a bowl game. Because we weren’t very good and we didn’t deserve to be, to be honest with you.”