FRISCO, Texas — College football in Texas rarely has seemed so impotent as when last season’s final AP poll did not reflect a single school from the state.
No Longhorns or Aggies. No Bears or Frogs. No Red Raiders or Cougars.
“We should be embarrassed we don’t have a team in the Top 25,” said Gary Patterson, whose TCU team finished with a 6-7 record after losing in the Liberty Bowl.
“There’s a lot of good football players that come to our schools, that can play and play at a high level, and we need to play better. It’s simple as that.”
Speaking at Big 12 media days, Patterson said Texas schools must be more productive recruiting their own state — long the hunting ground for Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and now being increasingly combed over by SEC programs.
“No. 1, we’ve got to keep players here,” he said. “I think the Internet and everything else has led to that because kids go anywhere now to look at a school. It’s not regional. And we’ve got to do a better job of keeping them in the state. If you want to have great teams, you have to have great players.”
Kingsbury on alert
At 24-26 overall and 10 games below .500 in league play, Texas Tech’s Kilff Kingsbury probably owns the hottest seat among Big 12 coaches. Coming off a 5-7 season while having to replace NFL first-rounder Patrick Mahomes makes this fall look daunting as well.
Athletics director Kirby Hocutt endorsed Kingsbury last November, saying “I look forward to future success under his leadership.” At that juncture it may have been too expensive to fire a coach scheduled to earn between $3.1 million and $4.1 million annually through 2020.
Saddled with a putrid defense, Kingsbury’s prolific passing attacks haven’t yielded the kind of results that ultimately matter most. His biggest regret so far through four seasons as a head coach?
“Just not being able to get over that hump for our players, for our student body, for our alumni. You just want it for them because we have incredible support, we have incredible fans,” he said. “We have had really good teams, and we’ve just kind of hovered, and we’ve got to get over it somehow.”
Recruiting Meacham
Offensive coordinator Doug Meacham’s sub-lateral move from TCU to Kansas, a head-scratcher for many, came about because of a long-term friendship with Jayhawks coach David Beaty.
“When I first got to Kansas, I called him 10 times and offered him,” Beaty said. “I told him, ‘Look, you can have all the money. I’ll hire everybody else for a dollar. You can have it all. What’s it going to take?’
“I know he feels good about the way that Kansas is trending upwards. That’s his words, not mine.”
Quotable
“I don’t think so. I don’t think any coach is going to take it there. I think they’d find a way to not get in the end zone at that point.” — Kingsbury on whether a quick-strike offense may someday produce a 100-point game