Facing coaching genius Gary Patterson on Halloween seems appropriate

For Baylor fans, it’s easy to dislike Gary Patterson.

The long-time TCU head coach is the villain they need to make the rivalry complete. He’s moody, angry and prone to make wild accusations to try and get his point across.

Remember when he accused Art Briles of stealing plays after he beat Baylor by 35 points? Or when he lost his mind over Ahmad Dixon?

He also blocks random fans and media members on Twitter for no particular reason. Just this week he blocked SicEm365 Radio producer Armstrong Simms. For what? To figure that out we’d have to hire a special counsel.

All that bluster is the icing on the cake for the biggest reason people dislike Gary Patterson: he’s a football genius. 

He will work up a defensive game plan to beat anyone and is the master at taking away what you do well.

Gary Patterson has raised TCU to national relevance—regardless of conference affiliation—prior to joining the Big 12. The man can flat out coach and there is really no debating that. Baylor should have a much larger edge over him in the recent matchups, but his gameplans have outfoxed the Bears several times regardless of coach. 

Just two years ago all it took was two big plays from TCU receiver Jalen Reagor to give Patterson’s defense enough to win the game. Say it with me, he’s that good. 

So why, if he is so dang good, have the Frogs been stuck in the middle? Well, that question is easy to answer. It’s also because of Gary Patterson. Coach P’s emotions run his life. You can see it when he’s coaching and you have seen it when he is at a press conference when he threw his own offensive coordinator under the bus.

As I mentioned earlier, he’s also thrown opposing coaches under the bus. Mostly Art Briles, but Art is not alone. Much like my column last week about Tom Herman, Gary Patterson can’t get out of his own way. 

When Gary Patterson lets his anger roll, it’s mostly small stuff. Things that you need to let roll off your back. You can’t let the little things bother you. But he does and because of this, TCU has failed to really build on some great teams in the early part of this decade.

Blocking people on Twitter? Who cares coach? You’re the head coach at a Power Five program and they are some ranting and obsessive Joe Fan on Twitter. 

This is also exactly what makes Gary Patterson the perfect rivalry villain. He’s a good coach and that makes him scary to play against. But sometimes he’s certifiably mad. Some years he’s Lex Luthor. Some years he seems more like Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Whatever character he shows up as this Halloween, can well all admit that he makes it fun?