Gary Patterson Gary Patterson ( born February 13 , 1960 ) is an American football coach and former player . He is currently the head football coach at Texas Christian University ( TCU ) , a position he has held since the end of the 2000 season . Patterson has led the TCU Horned Frogs to five conference championships — the Conference USA title in 2002 and four Mountain West Conference titles ( including three consecutive from 2009 to 2011 ) — and seven bowl wins including a victory in the 2011 Rose Bowl . His 2010 squad finished the season undefeated at 13 – 0 after the Rose Bowl win on New Year ' s Day 2011 , and ranked second in the final tallying of both major polls . Early life , playing career , education , and family . Patterson grew up in Rozel , Kansas and played football at Dodge City Community College and at Kansas State University . Patterson is married to Kelsey Patterson ( née Hayes ) . He has three sons : Josh , Cade and Blake . He received his bachelor ' s degree in physical education in 1983 from Kansas State University , where he became a member of the Acacia Fraternity . While coaching at Tennessee Technological University he earned a master ' s degree in educational administration in 1984 . Outside of coaching , Patterson plays guitar and performs at charity events around the Dallas - Fort Worth area during the off season . Coaching career . Early years . Patterson began his coaching career in 1982 at Kansas State University as an assistant to head coach Jim Dickey . After subsequently serving a number of years as an assistant coach at a number of different schools , Patterson was hired as defensive coordinator at the University of New Mexico in 1996 . He served in that job for two years before leaving to take the same position at Texas Christian University ( TCU ) in 1998 . He was named head coach at TCU prior to the Mobile Alabama Bowl in December 2000 , replacing Dennis Franchione who left to become the head coach at the University of Alabama . Patterson remains friends with current Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill from their time as coaches on Franchione ' s staffs . Kill served as the best man during Patterson ' s wedding to wife Kelsey in 2004 . Head coach at TCU . Patterson won his 110th game at TCU with a 56 - 0 rout of Grambling , passing Dutch Meyer as the winningest coach in program history . His teams have won at least 10 games in a season eight times . Only once have they failed to reach a bowl , in 2004 . Patterson ' s Frogs have earned a spot in the year - end top 25 nine times , counting his partial season as head coach in 2000 . In 2005 , Patterson led the Frogs to the Mountain West Conference championship in their first season as a member . Over the course of the 2005 and 2006 seasons , the Frogs won four consecutive games against Big 12 Conference opponents , with three of the victories coming on the road . Patterson was named the 2005 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year . In January 2007 , Patterson turned down a head coaching offer from the University of Minnesota worth over $ 2 million per year . Patterson led the 2009 Horned Frogs to a perfect 12 – 0 regular season record , a Mountain West Conference championship , a # 4 final BCS ranking , and an invitation to the 2010 Fiesta Bowl - - their first major bowl appearance in 51 years . They ultimately wfell by a score of 17 – 10 to undefeated # 6 Boise State . The 2009 Horned Frogs became the second " BCS Buster " from the Mountain West Conference ( and the fourth , overall ) and seriously threatened to " bust into " the 2010 BCS National Championship Game . Earlier in the day , Cincinnati defeated Pitt on an epic fourth - quarter rally . Cincinnati ' s win denied the Horned Frogs a shot at playing for the national championship , as it assured that two teams from Automatic Qualifying conference s would finish the regular season undefeated ( whoever won the 2009 SEC Championship Game would have also finished undefeated ) . Patterson was named the 2009 AP Coach of the Year , becoming the first head coach of a non - BCS conference team to win the award . He won a total of seven national " Coach of the Year " awards in 2009 in addition to being named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year for the second time ( his third conference " Coach of the Year " award , overall ) . The following year , Patterson led the 2010 Horned Frogs to a second consecutive undefeated regular season and a # 3 final BCS ranking . TCU received the first Rose Bowl invitation offered to a team from a non - AQ conference during the BCS era . The Horned Frogs won the 2011 Rose Bowl , 21 – 19 , over Wisconsin to cap off only the second undefeated and untied season in school history .