TCU's Patterson Has a Problem With His Fans & Attendance

Gary has had some words for his fans about attendance and other teams fans showing up.

I get those feels, but man I'm not sure it is ever a good look for a coach to even indirectly call out the fans... and I'm not sure anyone shows up because Gary wags his finger.

No coach "deserves" fans IMO.

Recently:
https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/college/big-12/texas-christian-university/article235540602.html

Previously:
https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/college/big-12/texas-christian-university/article235441437.html

PJ has done a pretty good job avoiding this topic and talks more about the team growing / bringing fans in that way. I'm sure he feels similarly at times, but I like to think he knows better than to complain. He noted the size when asked about it in two late games this year, while noting how engaged the crowd was. That's probabbly the best thing to do.

per the link:

Gary Patterson isn’t apologizing for his criticism of TCU’s home crowd during the Frogs’ 41-38 loss to crosstown rival SMU last Saturday. Instead, he’s doubling down on it.

“It’s my job just to coach ballgames,” Patterson said during his radio show on 92.1 Hank FM on Thursday night. “But if TCU ever wants to get to the point where we want to win a national championship, we’re going to have to decide that we’re not going to let anybody else in.

“When we do that, then at that point in time we’ll get to that point. I’m not upset with anyone, but the bottom line to it is I want to have a home-field advantage. If we’re going to let as many people of the other color down close to the field as we did the other day, it’s going to be very hard [to have a home-field advantage].”

“We’ve got to get where, ‘How do we help us win?’” Patterson said. “It’s not about, ‘How do you entertain us?’ We’re all here because we want to win. We’ve created an unbelievable social atmosphere and, by the way, we’ve also got a football game. We need a transition.”

Go Gophers!!

I agree Slab that PJ has taken the right approach on this. He says things like the fans that were at the game were really into it and loud (true about some of those games last year).

I agree it's not good for a coach to call out his team's fan base. I also agree that Fleck has handled this issue well.

In thinking about this topic of college football fans (and how winning impacts attendance), I decided to go to Patterson's Wiki page to see what his won-loss record has been over the years. Even though I was already aware that he was a very good coach, I was quite impressed with his career record at TCU. I mean, wow! 19 years, and only two non-winning seasons. 169-64 overall. 104-45 conference record. 11-6 in bowl games, including winning the 2011 Rose Bowl. Color me impressed.

PJ went as far this last weekend to praise the fans for staying to the end, even through the 3rd and 30 stage where things weren't looking good. He's using the right approach.

It's unreasonable to expect fans to show up when you went from a team fighting for a spot in the college football playoffs to a team fighting to make a bowl game in four years.

I'm sure Fleck has been annoyed with attendance at times but he's smart to not say anything negative about it. Between the price increase, losing a popular coach, everything that went on in 2017, and getting worse on the field, it's not surprising at all that attendance is down over 4-5 years ago.

GoGophersUMN said:

... it's not surprising at all that attendance is down over 4-5 years ago.

Click to expand...

And the home schedule last season was one of the least appealing in decades.

But overall, attendance this year is up. Not surprising since attendance increases/decreases are a lagging indicator of fan approval (i.e. more people are going to games now because the season ended well last year).

I actually can't think of a recent Gopher coach that called out fans. Maybe Mason? PJ has handled it very well.

TCU is in a weird spot fan-wise as I don't think they are a huge school with a huge alumni base. I'm guessing they probably depend on a lot of locals that have just adopted them as their favorite football team, even though they have no real affiliation with the school.

Scolding fans for not showing up is an awful idea. It is the coach's job to build an onfield product people want to see, and the AD's job to build a gameday experience/marketing plan to make people want to show up. No one should ever think it is the customer's responsibility to do a better job buying a product that they aren't doing a good enough job of selling.

bleedsmaroonandgold said:

Scolding fans for not showing up is an awful idea. It is the coach's job to build an onfield product people want to see, and the AD's job to build a gameday experience/marketing plan to make people want to show up. No one should ever think it is the customer's responsibility to do a better job buying a product that they aren't doing a good enough job of selling.

Click to expand...

Saban has also ranted about this multiple times in the last year or two. It's a bad look and a terrible idea, but Saban can also do whatever Saban wants to do.