Posters begin to call for Patterson's head on a platter after we only beat Duquense 55-0, saying we should have scored 70.
Cal, despite having a good defense year in and year out under Wilcox, causes our fanbase to clean house on the offensive side of the coaching staff when we only manage to score 28 points on them in a 28-14 victory.
Posters again begin to call for Patterson's retirement or firing after we give up a long play on a trick play during SMU's opening drive, and that sentiment doesn't change even after we comfortably beat SMU 45-21.
We beat Texas again to move to 4-0 but posters firmly in the "we need a coaching change" camp say it doesn't matter because we always beat Texas and continue to post about other head coaching candidates in the post game threads.
Once again a trip to Lubbock results in a weird game in which we win in a weird fashion 35-21, but posters continue to say we need a coaching change because we beat a lame duck Texas Tech team with a lame duck coach.
Finally its prove it week, we are 5-0 and playing unbeaten Oklahoma in a prime time slot. "Lincoln owns Gary" claim the posters who have been clamoring all season for a head coaching change, as they point to past games where things have not been pretty. Oklahoma lives up to the preseason hype although we are more competitive in this game than we have been in Fort Worth lately but Oklahoma has just too many weapons and we fall 37-28. The coaching change faction of the board says we will never beat Oklahoma as long as we have Gary and we are destined to be an also ran to them until we make a coaching change.
We rebound and beat West Virginia 24-14 in a low scoring battle, which the coaching change crowd doesn't think is enough to change their minds. The coaching change crowd finds an alliance with those who only think we need to clean house with the offensive coaching staff, noting that this is the 2nd week in a row we failed to score 30 and we can't compete in this league unless we score 30 each game.
The road game at Kansas State stirs up the coaching change crowd, as they claim Kansas State is a far better coached team and far better fundamentally(ignoring the fact Kansas State finished 4-6 the previous year on a 5 game losing streak with a 40 point season ending loss to Texas) and how Kansas State has passed us up in the coaching department. Like against Texas Tech, we find a way to win an ugly 27-20 game, and for the 2nd week in a row a common ground is found between the clean house completely and clean house offensively crowd as they moan and complain about our offense despite moving to 7-1 on the year and remaining in the Top 25.
We come back home and easily beat a Baylor team still trying to find an offensive identity under Dave Aranda. But once again, we score under 30 points as we win 28-10. Despite an 8-1 record, the coaching change drumbeat festers on, as both crowds ignore the solid play all season from the defense, and fixate completely on the 30 point barrier.
The road game against Oklahoma State next up is the matchup of two fanbases who have QBs that are better running than throwing, and have a significant faction that wants to make complete coaching changes across the board despite solid performances on the year so far. This is a top 25 matchup between 1 loss teams and the winner gets the inside track to the Big 12 title game. It's a mirror image of each other and both fanbases have a faction of fans who want their team to lose so they can inch closer to the coaching change they desperately want. This game goes to the wire and we lose 31-28 and once again fail to reach 30 points which causes this board to explode.
After the layup at home against Kansas to move to 9-2, we have one shot to beat Iowa State and hope to make it to the Big 12 title game. The offense can't do enough and its a defensive struggle on both sides that ends in a 21-17 loss and out of the Big 12 title game.
Oklahoma goes to the playoff, Big 12 title game loser goes to the Sugar Bowl, and at 9-3 we find ourselves back in the Alamo Bowl where we play a USC team that had just fired Clay Helton before the game and we win to finish 10-3 and no coaching changes are made and we are right back to where we were to start the year.
