MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – We are halfway through the 2021 college football season and earlier this week, veteran TCU coach Gary Patterson felt the need to address a lengthy essay Horned Frog graduate Matt Jennings wrote titled "Gary Patterson Has No Plans to Make a Change, but TCU Should."
 
Yes, THAT Matt Jennings!
 
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Drew Davison, Patterson brought up the Horned Frog fan's online critique after he was asked a question about TCU's defensive struggles, and the gravel-voiced coach continued on about it for close to seven minutes.
 
"What's your reason to go fire Gary Patterson?" Patterson asked. "I've been here before. It's probably not going to be my last time. If you stay somewhere long enough, you're going to have problems. You are going to go through things on and off the field.
 
"At the end of the day, those people out there that think I'm riding into the sunset would be wrong," he added. "You don't spend 24 years building something to get to where we have. I read all of it, and Matt Jennings … someday will have an opportunity to hopefully win a Pulitzer because of what he does."
 
There you go, social media has now brought the Elks Club right to the doorstep of the football complex! 
 
For his part, West Virginia coach Neal Brown is looking at TCU through a completely different lens.
 
"Personally, I have a lot of respect for (Patterson), and I have a lot of respect for the program he's established," Brown said during his weekly Tuesday afternoon news conference. "To do it for an extended period of time, especially in this day and age, is special."
 
Unless you are coaching at Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Michigan State, Coastal Carolina or Wake Forest, we have reached that time of the year for all college football coaches with one or more Ls next to their name.
 
Oklahoma is still undefeated and ranked fourth in the country, but Lincoln Riley has had to deal with the fallout of having an underperforming star quarterback. Since benching one-time Heisman Trophy frontrunner Spencer Rattler, Riley has gotten a lot of "What to do with Spencer Rattler" advice.
 
Jim Harbaugh is undefeated as well, but everyone knows Nov. 27 is this year's judgment day for him when Ohio State shows up on the schedule in great, big, scarlet letters.
 
But back to West Virginia-TCU. About half of this week's TCU game notes either list all of the impressive things the Horned Frogs have accomplished during Patterson's 21-year tenure, or favorable comparisons to their Texas big brother, the Longhorns.
 
If you wind the calendar all the way back to 2005, there are just nine college football programs with a better winning percentage than TCU. With the exception of Boise State, just about anybody who has ever turned on a game can probably name the other eight.

Yet since 2017, when TCU won 11 games and played in the Valero Alamo Bowl, it has posted pedestrian records of 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 and now stands 3-3 heading into Saturday night's annual clash with the Mountaineers, prompting those essayists to essay.
 
As of late, it's certainly not been the same for TCU fans used to seeing Patterson's teams winning 11, 12 or 13 games a year in the Mountain West Conference. Yes, he's had a couple of those since TCU joined the Big 12 in 2012, but winning that frequently in a football conference that generally has up to half of its teams in the national rankings isn't quite as easy as just showing up on time each Saturday.
 
By the way, second-ranked Cincinnati is really, really good; I got an opportunity to watch a lot of its victory over Central Florida last Saturday afternoon – and partly why the Bearcats are really good this year is because of what they have faced before Central Florida, and what they will face after Central Florida.
 
Cincinnati had to bring its A-game against Indiana and Notre Dame. It won't need to bring it again until Nov. 20 when it plays 21^st-ranked SMU at home, and if UC gets past the Mustangs, it will have to bring its A-game just once more in the College Football Playoff, provided the ball bounces right.
 
Youthful West Virginia found out what happens in the Big 12 when you don't have your A-games against Texas Tech and Baylor, and TCU is finding out what happens in this league when you aren't dealing from a full deck of cards.
 
The "probables" and the "questionables" have been a weekly topic of conversation for Patterson, who listed more of them for this weekend's tilt against the Mountaineers. His quarterback, Max Duggan, coming off a career-high 346 yards passing and four touchdowns in last Saturday's 52-31 loss at Oklahoma, has been playing with a broken bone in his foot.
 
Patterson called Duggan "probable" earlier this week.
 
His leading rusher, Zach Evans, who has had four straight 100-yard games including a 190-yard performance earlier this season against Cal, sat out the Oklahoma game with a foot injury.
 
Patterson says Evans is "probable" too.
 
Star cornerback Tre'Vius Hodges-Tomlinson missed the second half of last Saturday's loss at Oklahoma and after initially labeling him "probable," Patterson later changed that assessment to a more pessimistic "questionable."
 
Starting outside linebacker Wyatt Harris did not play against the Sooners, nor did safeties Bud Clark, Deshawn McCuin and explosive slot receiver JD Spielman.
 
Noah Daniels, an NFL-caliber corner who has played just one game this season, suited up against Oklahoma but did not play. Patterson indicated Daniels and Clark could be available Saturday night against the Mountaineers.
 
West Virginia, too, has been physically and mentally taxed after facing an early-season slate of Power 5s, making it one of just four teams in college football to play 11 Power 5 programs during the regular season this year.
 
Each game and each week preparing for each game is adding up.
 
Brown said Tuesday that his young football squad needed a couple of days away from each other to charge their batteries.
 
"I think they're refreshed mentally, which is as important as anything," Brown noted.
 
Battery charging time has already come and gone for 3-3 TCU, which had its open week between the Cal and SMU games back on Sept. 18. Since then, the Horned Frogs have played physically and emotionally taxing contests against Texas, Longhorn State cousin Texas Tech and fourth-ranked Oklahoma.
 
After West Virginia, TCU has games left against Kansas State, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State.
 
The 2-4 Mountaineers don't enjoy any more Sunday strolls in the park either with TCU, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Texas and Kansas looming.
 
Both are looking to get the second half of their seasons off on the right foot. 
 
One team will and the other won't. Yes, we've reached that time of the year in college football.
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. (ET) and will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Brian Custer, Kelly Stouffer and Lauren Sisler).
 
Mountaineer Sports Network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning begins with the Mountaineer Tailgate Show starting at 4 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
WVU has won three in a row against the Horned Frogs, four of the last five and owns 6-4 overall record in series play, including a Bluebonnet Bowl victory in 1984. 
 
The Mountaineers have won in Amon G. Carter Stadium in 2013 and 2019, both by three points.