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Texas Football: Way-too-early game-by-game predictions for 2020

By Jake Mitchell

HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 14: Head coach Tom Herman of the Texas Longhorns prepares to lead the team onto the field before the game against the Rice Owls at NRG Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - SEPTEMBER 14: Head coach Tom Herman of the Texas Longhorns prepares to lead the team onto the field before the game against the Rice Owls at NRG Stadium on September 14, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /
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FORT WORTH, TX – NOVEMBER 29: Head coach Gary Patterson of the TCU Horned Frogs waits with players before being introduced before the game with the West Virginia Mountaineers at Amon G. Carter Stadium on November 29, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. West Virginia won 20-17. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
FORT WORTH, TX – NOVEMBER 29: Head coach Gary Patterson of the TCU Horned Frogs waits with players before being introduced before the game with the West Virginia Mountaineers at Amon G. Carter Stadium on November 29, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. West Virginia won 20-17. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) /

The 2019 season saw Gary Patterson’s fourth losing campaign in his 19 years as the head coach at TCU, which on one hand, is an impressive mark. Four losing seasons in 19 years, obviously, mean’s he’s put out a winning product for roughly 80 percent of his time in Fort Worth.

On the other hand, though, the timing of that losing season was concerning. The Horned Frogs have now won seven or fewer games in three of the last four seasons, and two of those losing seasons have happened in that same period.

The 2020 season will be a pivotal year for TCU. If the Frogs are once again in the territory of five or six wins, this part of the Patterson era will start to feel less like a rough patch and more like a definitive trend of decline.

It doesn’t help that the signature TCU game of the last few years is the infamous 2018 Cheez-It Bowl.

While double-digit win totals have become less common in Fort Worth, the Horned Frogs are still a very tough out. In 2019’s 5-7 season, only one of those seven defeats came by more than a touchdown. Patterson’d defense also gave up less than 30 points in matchups with Oklahoma, Texas, and Baylor.

Once again, the Longhorns are in a revenge position. The 37-27 TCU victory was a big part of Texas’ late-season slide in 2020. The Longhorns had already lost to both LSU and Oklahoma, but two seven-point losses to playoff-bound squads does not completely undo a season. The defeat at Amon G. Carter Stadium kickstarted a run in which Texas lost three of their last five games, and it helped to undercut all the momentum Texas had built up.

In 2020, Texas will get their win back, and try to avoid the late-season slip-ups that have plagued them year after year.

Prediction: Texas 27, TCU 17 (9-1, 6-1)

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