The TCU Horned Frogs (4-5, 2-4 Big 12) lost 29-23 in triple overtime at home to No. 12 Baylor on Saturday. It was the first time TCU has lost to the rival Bears since the 2014 game.
Head coach Gary Patterson, offensive lineman Cordel Iwuagwu and cornerback Jeff Gladney spoke to the media following the game. Here are the highlights from what they had to say:
Gary Patterson
On how he’s feeling after the loss: “I thought once we’d stopped them on the two-point (conversion, in triple overtime), I thought we’d win. I thought we’d go in and do it. This is probably the most disappointed I’ve ever been, but I’m also real proud of our kids.”
On the defense: “We’ve got good players. We’ve been limiting everybody, I mean, if you look at everybody we’ve played so far. You can ask (Baylor’s) head coach what he said to me after the ballgame. It’s not my place to say that. I think there’s a respect factor of understanding what we do. There’s a reason why I’ve been able to keep my job.”
On Te’Vailance Hunt’s touchdown catch in the first overtime: “Awesome. I know this much, I couldn’t have made that catch."
On Max Duggan: “If you want to be able to build a program, you want to be able to build a program with somebody that has an attitude. He’s not making all the plays we want him to make, but the bottom line to it, the essential thing, the ground foundation, is unbelievable. We need to just keep growing on that.”
On youth in the defense: “All these guys are growing up. Your starting free (safety) was a sophomore, your starting weak safety was a freshman, you had one senior corner and the other guy was a freshman...one out of your two linebackers were freshmen, and sometimes when we were on the field two of your four defensive linemen were freshmen. And we just went toe-to-toe with the 12th-best team in the nation.”
Jeff Gladney
On close games: “We talk about it every week, week in week out. It’s just four or five plays. And we’ve gotta just make those plays.”
On Hunt’s catch: “Beast Texas. Yeah, that’s my boy. That’s a great catch, great.”
On feeling like TCU was going to win in 3OT: “Yeah, I thought we were going to win it. I just knew we were going to go down and score, punch the two-point conversion in and it was over.”
On Duggan being ruled out of bounds on a potential touchdown: “Nah, I thought it was a touchdown. From what I’ve seen on the board, not enough evidence. But hey, that’s the way they called it.”
Cordel Iwuagwu
On his feelings postgame: “It’s pretty disappointing, honestly. We were really close. Everybody was crying. It really hurt my heart. As a senior I want to almost put the team on my back, and I know I couldn’t, so it hurt my heart.”
On not scoring on first and goal in 3OT: “Honestly, we have to do better....we gotta get that. Ain’t no excuses. We gotta get that.”
On Duggan: “Max is my guy. Regardless, he’s my guy. He’s gonna keep being Max, and I love it.”