Gary Patterson must change the way he adjusts to succeed at USC

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Gary Patterson, now employed by USC, is a known innovator in college football. He needed to be ahead of the curve to bring TCU from obscurity in Conference USA and the WAC all the way to the top of the mountain in college football. TCU finished second in one season and third in another under Patterson's leadership. Had the four-team College Football Playoff existed in the earlier portion of Patterson's TCU tenure, the Horned Frogs would have made multiple appearances.

ESPN's Bill Connelly reflected on Gary Patterson's deftness and adaptability as a defensive strategist a decade and a half ago at TCU, recalling the coach's best season with the Horned Frogs and how it ended:

"Jan. 1, 2011: No. 3 TCU 21, No. 4 Wisconsin 19. Just as Jimmy Johnson found ways to get more speed onto the field on defense, Gary Patterson did the same in the 2000s, building a wrecking ball of a program around a 4-2-5 defense that would soon become commonplace," Connelly wrote. "His 2010 team could have done major damage in a playoff but instead settled for shutting down Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl to finish unbeaten."

Realizing how good Gary Patterson was at magnifying and maximizing the speed on his defenses, the challenge for him this year at USC is different. It's not that speed doesn't matter – it certainly does – but the main thing USC has to do is show it can stand up to Big Ten opponents in the trenches and play muscular, big-boy football. Can Gary Patterson get USC to be more physical on defense? If he can, his legend will grow, even though his storied TCU days are now several years in the past.

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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Gary Patterson must change the way he adjusts to succeed at USC

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