Letter From The Publisher

Gary Patterson’s first season as head coach of TCU in 2001 was a challenge. The Horned Frogs had lost 28 seniors to graduation, including LaDanian Tomlinson, and had to play a full slate of games against unfamiliar opponents, having moved from the WAC to Conference USA that year. After a 4-5 start, Patterson was on the hot seat.      But a strong finish that year and 10-2 and 11-2 records the following two seasons put his career on the fast track. He even landed a spot on the August 2004 cover of AFM as the top coach on our then-annual “Hot List” of up-and-coming coaching talents. That list included Urban Meyer of Utah, Paul Johnson of Navy, Bobby Petrino of Louisville and Jimbo Fisher of LSU, among others.     What stands out is that, of our 11 “Hot” coaches from what was then I-A, Gary Patterson is the only one who is coaching at the same