Credit: Dallas Morning News

At Big 12 Media Days, TCU’s Gary Patterson took the podium and pretty early on provided the runaway quote of the event by somehow working in “cockroach DNA” and his marriage into an answer.

When asked about sticking around a place vs. leaving for another job opportunity has allowed him to build the TCU program and culture, Patterson responded; “I have a little bit of cockroach DNA and you can’t kill a cockroach. I started in fifth place with my wife. I just outlasted everyone else.”

Patterson hopped onto Sirius XM after leaving the main stage and provided defenses coaches a rare glimpse into one of the best defensive minds in college football.

Asked how often he adjusts and adapts his defense that has been known to stymie even some of the best offenses in the country, Patterson shared that he spends each off season coming up with new ideas to implement.

“I always try to find a different idea for every personnel group. When you have to play in the league, and you know no other Power 5 league plays a round robin, and when you have to play someone the same year, after year, after year, you better come up with something.”

“So that’s what I spend every spring and summer, is ‘What is going to be our newest idea for each one of these personnel groups because they’ve been watching us.”

Patterson also shared an interesting philosophy on how successful modern defenses need to operate more like offenses do.

“What we’re trying to do, is let’s say there is a 60-play game. I’m trying to find 30 plays where I have a better play call than you do and now we limit the game down to 30 plays.”

“If you can do that, and that’s what offenses do, I believe that you’ve got to play defense like offense. You’ve got to play plays.”

Patterson goes on to explain how the answer for many offenses answer include wordy play calls and special tags, and how defenses need to follow suit with some tweaks to avoid becoming too vanilla.

The two-minute clip below is a great glimpse into how Patterson approaches things on the defensive side of the ball, where TCU has been exceptional for quite some time.