Even without Gary Patterson, TCU still owns Texas, and maybe “the committee” will notice

Despite the best efforts of Gary Patterson, his old team got his new team by playing the type of game that was their identity for 20 years.

Even without Gary, TCU still owns Texas.

And Sonny Dykes still owns Gary Patterson.

On Saturday night, the second largest crowd in the history of Darrel K. Royal Memorial Stadium watched No. 4 TCU defeat No. 18 Texas 17-10.

Close score.

Ugly game.

Exciting game.

Not a close game.

TCU is now 8-3 against Texas in the Big 12. TCU coach Sonny Dykes is 3-0 against Gary Patterson teams in their last three games.

To be fair to Gary, he’s a special assistant at Texas. This Texas loss can’t be put on him, despite some of the obvious characteristics he brought to this game.

This Texas loss is on UT coach Steve Sarkisian, who has much to answer for in his second season in Austin. But that’s another series of columns, and rants.

No one wants to believe this, especially those who run the SEC, ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS, NBC, ABC, New York Times, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Planet, Animal Planet, Food Network, and the college football playoff committee, but TCU is just better than Texas.

TCU is 10-0 with two games remaining in the regular season, and a guaranteed date in the Big 12 title game.

And, yes, No. 4 TCU came to the University of Texas as a touchdown underdog; you would have needed Indiana Jones to find a single national pundit who believed that the line wasn’t justified.

It was hard to find a national observer who didn’t think Texas was going to send TCU back to Fort Worth, and straight to the Hoosier Bowl in Fort Wayne.

Maybe (doubtful) those who vote, and bothered to watch the game, saw enough to finally believe TCU as worthy of a playoff spot.

At No. 4, technically TCU is “in the playoff,” but even a two-month infant trusts this committee.

The irony is TCU hired a head coach whose forte is offense, just beat their old coach playing a style that he preached for decades.

TCU held Texas to 199 yards, and offensively the Horns scored but one field goal. The Horns were 1-of-13 on third downs.

UT was denied touchdowns on multiple trips inside the red zone in the second half.

“To hold this offense to 3 points? Are you kidding?” Dykes said after the game. “This offense is loaded with future NFL players.”

That’s a quality Lane Kiffin-style shot at Texas, without the intent.

Texas has the 5-star quarterback, Quinn Ewers, future first round NFL running back in Bijan Robinson, who has an NIL deal with a Lamborghini dealership, and star wide receiver in Xavier Worthy.

Against TCU, that trio was pretty much worthless.

Ewers played like a non-scholarship walk on. He completed 17-of-39 passes for 171 yards with an interception.

Bijan.

The best running back in college football. The running back worthy of a first round draft pick.

He rushed 12 times for 29 yards.

Bijan Robinson. Ran. 12. Times. For. 29 yards. That’s almost as bad as that sentence structure.

The last time TCU shutdown a running back of this stature was September of 2005, when a young, unranked Gary Patterson team of the Mountain West Conference stopped Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson in Norman.

All Day ran 22 times for 63 yards in that loss (also 17-10).

To round on the Texas Top Three, Worthy caught four passes for 32 yards.

For the TCU defensive players who authored this, the production didn’t register.

“We’re going to enjoy it, of course. It’s not like it’s our last game,” TCU linebacker Johnny Hodges said. “But, yeah, you want to soak in it, but it’s nice.”

Sounds like a party.

TCU players and coaches celebrated and “partied” on the DKR field after the game, which included extended handshakes and conversations between Patterson and many of his old players.

The longest chat appeared to be for the quarterback he recruited out of Iowa, Max Duggan.

“Just respect on both sides,” Duggan said. “It was good to see him again.”

As hard as Patterson’s defense tried to kill Duggan, who was sacked three times in the first quarter, the senior didn’t stop. He just kept playing, even when it appeared at times he was hurt.

In the second half, TCU’s offensive line finally started pushing, and running back Kendre Miller took off.

Miller ran 21 times for 138 yards, including a 75-yard scoring run in the third quarter for the game’s first touchdown.

Leading 10-3 in the fourth quarter, Duggan hit receiver Quentin Johnston on a 31-yard touchdown pass. That was it.

Even though UT scared all of TCU to death with a late defensive touchdown, it wasn’t going to be enough.

It wasn’t going to be enough because TCU is just better than Texas.

Maybe those “in charge” will finally acknowledge as such.