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Athlon Sports: Gary Patterson is the Big 12's Best Coach

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
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Athlon Sports: Gary Patterson is the Big 12's Best Coach


The Big 12 has its share of great college football coaches. But the best in the conference is TCU's Gary Patterson.

In Athlon Sports' Big 12 Coach Rankings, the Horned Frogs' head coach is listed at No. 1, just ahead of Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley.

Read more at https://athlonsports.com/college-football/tcu-football-gary-patterson-big-12s-best-coach
 

SnoSki

Full Member
I think it’s a tight 1-2 at the top, but not sure how Riley isn’t #1. Unfortunately Herman is closing the gap
Hard to determine how good Lincoln Riley is when the team he inherited had two Heisman winners as well as Hollywood Brown and Cedee Lamb.

I’m sure he is a good coach, but let’s give him a roster of two and three star players like GP works with most years before we say he’s the best in the conference.
 

MTfrog5

Active Member
Hard to determine how good Lincoln Riley is when the team he inherited had two Heisman winners as well as Hollywood Brown and Cedee Lamb.

I’m sure he is a good coach, but let’s give him a roster of two and three star players like GP works with most years before we say he’s the best in the conference.
Agreed 100%. I’ll wait until he recruits and develops that high school kid at OU rather than just get high profile transfers
 

jake102

Active Member
Hard to determine how good Lincoln Riley is when the team he inherited had two Heisman winners as well as Hollywood Brown and Cedee Lamb.

I’m sure he is a good coach, but let’s give him a roster of two and three star players like GP works with most years before we say he’s the best in the conference.

Riley has been the offensive mastermind at OU for a while now, not just as head coach. Guessing he had just a little bit to do with Mayfield and Murray and the recruitment of those guys, WRs and OL.

An argument could be that Riley is Briles 2.0, just at OU where he can get much better players across the board. Great offenses, but doesn’t understand defense/the entire picture. I think time will tell whether he can figure out defense.

I don’t understand complaints that he produces Heisman winners out of transfers. If you could guarantee me a top notch transfer every year, screw HS QBs, take somewhat proven commodities. And in today’s portal world, there’s at least one awesome QB available every year.
 

netty2424

Full Member
Part of coaching is recruiting. Some coaches are better than others, and some coaches have significant advantages from the start, see Big State U in Herman and Riley.

GP may very well be a much “better coach,” but until GP is able to beat Riley, Riley’s unfortunately got the edge.

End of the day, wins and losses tell the tale.
 

SnoSki

Full Member
Riley has been the offensive mastermind at OU for a while now, not just as head coach. Guessing he had just a little bit to do with Mayfield and Murray and the recruitment of those guys, WRs and OL.

An argument could be that Riley is Briles 2.0, just at OU where he can get much better players across the board. Great offenses, but doesn’t understand defense/the entire picture. I think time will tell whether he can figure out defense.

I don’t understand complaints that he produces Heisman winners out of transfers. If you could guarantee me a top notch transfer every year, screw HS QBs, take somewhat proven commodities. And in today’s portal world, there’s at least one awesome QB available every year.
I hear you on a lot of these points. That said it’s very difficult to judge how good of a recruiter Riley is when he had the brand of OU to take to the doorsteps of every 5-Star kid that he has seen.

I’m sure he is good or else he wouldn’t have the job. That said, would his roster he significantly stronger than GP’s if the roles were reversed? I think every kid respects GP but how many don’t return his calls because TCU has a small stadium and doesn’t have 8 decades of winning under its belt?

Point being, I think that GP and Riley’s recruiting is less based on their personality or skilol than it is program prestige. People think kids avoid TCU because GP is a hardass. Saban was a hardass before Bama won all these titles with him but Saban still got blue chip kids.. why? because
Alabama has a HUGE stadium and a strong history. So does OU.
 
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Billy Clyde

Active Member
The argue against Riley because of OU's wealth of talent is like saying Satan isn't really the best coach in college football. Skins on the wall.
 

SnoSki

Full Member
The argue against Riley because of OU's wealth of talent is like saying Satan isn't really the best coach in college football. Skins on the wall.

If GP had the same roster as Riley or Saban the last two years, does he put up a worse record? IMO, I don’t think so. If anything OUs defense would be a lot better and the offense would be a slight tick worse but likely not any worse than it was in the Boykin/Doctson years.
 

helcap

Full Member
Agree that recruiting is a big part of the coaching job. But put it in this context. If say Riley jumped tomorrow to the NFL and Patterson was named his replacement, do you think OU's recruiting would take a dive? I don't believe so, but others may disagree
 

Pharm Frog

Full Member
Agree that recruiting is a big part of the coaching job. But put it in this context. If say Riley jumped tomorrow to the NFL and Patterson was named his replacement, do you think OU's recruiting would take a dive? I don't believe so, but others may disagree

I am one who would disagree depending on how deep a "dive" you are looking at.
 

TRF51

Active Member
Hard to determine how good Lincoln Riley is when the team he inherited had two Heisman winners as well as Hollywood Brown and Cedee Lamb.

I’m sure he is a good coach, but let’s give him a roster of two and three star players like GP works with most years before we say he’s the best in the conference.

Correction, he made two Heisman Trophy Winners. He made Baker and Murray who they are, they were not the players they are now before he coached them.

GP is a great coach and the best defensive coach in college football but he and his defense have been owned by L. Riley, for that reason I would say Riley is the best coach then GP.
 
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