FORT WORTH, Texas — A little more than two months after reaching his pinnacle, Gary Patterson was reflective about his new reality.
Following a TCU spring practice in March of 2011, just two months after winning the Rose Bowl, Patterson said, "It's hard. The problem is, you spend the rest of your life trying to get back to that moment."
Most coaches never get a moment of that magnitude.
An amazing part of Patterson's tenure at TCU isn't just that Rose Bowl moment, it's how close he got to it again despite playing on a field that is not designed for them to succeed.
As TCU and Patterson move on separate from each other for the first time since 1998, there is a pall over the athletic department, and the entire campus.
It's appropriate that the weather has been cloudy, cold and rainy around TCU since the move was announced.
This is one of those times when everyone associated with the school, while they may be down, should follow the words of German poet Ludwig Jacobowski who wrote, "Do not cry because they are past! Smile, because they once were!"
What Gary Patterson and TCU achieved should not have happened.
All one has to do is look at the latest College Football Playoff rankings, and the treatment of undefeated Cincinnati. TCU used to be the Bearcats, who are 8-0, ranked second in the AP Poll, but sixth in the CFP poll.
It is a pathetic reminder of how frequently the results can only selectively matter in college football.
The college football playoff system is so rigged, biased and flawed that the accomplishment of TCU navigating its way to a Fiesta Bowl, a Rose Bowl a Peach Bowl, and into the Big 12, does not receive its proper due.
The suits who run college football don't want a TCU, or a Cincinnati. If it was up to them, college football would be Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Alabama and a few others.
Even after TCU was admitted to the Big 12, college football reminded TCU what it really thinks about TCU.
In the first year of the playoff in 2014, the selection committee moved TCU from third to sixth in the final rankings, even though TCU blew out Iowa State in the regular-season finale.
TCU was headed to the playoffs, but kicked out in the final minute.
That TCU under Patterson even forced its way into these conversations makes them one of the most under appreciated stories in college athletics in the modern era.
While SMU is the case study for severe NCAA penalties when its football team received the Death Penalty in 1987, most people forget that TCU was given what is called the "Walking Death Penalty" for infractions committed in the same era.
TCU came back from that to win a Rose Bowl. A coach normally only gets one of those pictures on his wall, but TCU had a few more after that win over Wisconsin.
The Big 12 title in 2014, and the blowout win over Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl that same season.
The overtime win against Baylor in the freezing, driving rain in 2015. The crazy comeback win against Oregon in the Alamo Bowl that year.
Reaching the Big 12 title game in 2017, and winning the Alamo Bowl against Stanford shortly thereafter.
All of those wins against Texas.
When you consider where TCU came from in the '80s, some of its accomplishments defy logic.
This is why so many people thought TCU should have given Patterson more time.
But the record states there was Gary Patterson before the Big 12, and Gary Patterson in the Big 12.
In his first 10 seasons as head coach, TCU was 109-29 with eight 10-win seasons, and only one losing campaign. All of that happened when TCU was a member of Conference USA or the Mountain West.
In these last 11 seasons, TCU is 72-49 with three 10-win seasons, and what will likely be four losing records. All of this happened since TCU joined the Big 12. Five of the last six years have not been good.
Patterson's last 11 seasons in the Big 12 don't happen without his first 10 seasons.
The seminal moment to all of this will always be that Rose Bowl.
He did indeed chase that moment for the rest of his time at TCU, and the fact that they came close again to a few more of those in a system that is set up for them to fail is their most amazing achievement of all.
