When I first started hearing the name, Sonny Cumbie, was about him going to TCU coinciding with Patterson deciding he needed to make a big change in coaching philosophy, and things went from bad to damn good.
2012 regular season 7-6, conference 4-5
2013 regular season 4-8, conference 2-7
enter Cumbie
2014 regular season 12-1, conference 8-1 Patterson Big12 Coach of the Year
2015 regular season 10-2, conference 7-2
Hence the finger pointing at Cumbie. Add to the above records, the before and after of Boykin's stats.
Our problem is that there are no Longhorn "before" seasons to map against Coach Strong's performance for the past two seasons, where Patterson had some solid before-seasons at TCU (including Rose Bowl win over Wisconsin) to offset his 7-6 and 4-8 back-to-back seasons. But known as a defensive minded coach, he brought in Cumbie to coach up the quarterback position and be part of the offensive scheme, and the rest is history. He got full credit for that move, even enhanced his cred as a top head coach. The 4-8 season disappeared as if it never happened. Same for the off-the-field problems.
Hence, Cumbie's perceived status. And Patterson seen not as a bad head coach, but as an HC willing to pay a helluva lot of attention to offense, and of that kind, regardless of being a solid defensive coach.
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Last edited by a moderator: Dec 9, 2015