Gary Patterson’s 21-year tenure as TCU’s head coach is over.
Patterson is out as TCU’s coach, effective immediately, after a 3-5 start to the Horned Frogs’ 2021 season. TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati said in a statement that TCU asked Patterson to remain the coach for the rest of the 2021 season and transition to a new role in 2022, but Patterson declined, leading to his immediate departure.
TCU AD Jeremiah Donati statement on Gary Patterson’s departure: pic.twitter.com/nxYromrStC
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) October 31, 2021
Former Minnesota coach Jerry Kill, who was a special assistant to the head coach for TCU, will serve as TCU’s interim coach for the remainder of the season.
With 181 career wins, Patterson is the winningest coach in TCU history. He earned national coach of the year honors in both 2009 and 2014 and led the Horned Frogs to six conference championships, including a Big 12 title in 2014, when TCU just missed the College Football Playoff in favor of Ohio State, who went on to win the inaugural CFP as the No. 4 seed.
Since 2018, however, TCU has gone just 21-22, never winning more than seven games since an 11-3 season in 2017. His tenure with the Horned Frogs officially reached its end after they lost their last three consecutive games, including a 31-12 loss to Kansas State on Saturday.
Patterson was the second-longest-tenured active coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision behind only Kirk Ferentz, who has been Iowa’s head coach since 1999.
