The TCU football program has been raking in preseason honors coming off last year’s Rose Bowl victory, including head coach Gary Patterson and fourteen individual players.
Sports Illustrated picked Patterson as the number one coach in the nation while his peers voted him number one in ESPN The Magazine’s coaches poll.
“I’m a good coach because I’ve got a great staff, I got great players and we got recognition,” said coach Patterson. “I ‘m very grateful they think that.”
The coaching staff was named the third best in the country by Yahoo! Sports/Rivals.com.
Linebackers Tanner Brock and Tank Carder combined for 33 individual honors. Brock and Carder are on the Rotary Lombardi, Dick Butkus, Bronko Nagurski, and Chuck Bednarik watch lists for top defensive players in the nation.
Carder is also on the watch list for Walter Payton’s Player of the Year award.
Carder and Brock are ranked 51st and 95th respectively on Yahoo! Sports/Rivals.com list of the nation’s top players. They are on College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) Linebacker of the Year watch list.
Carder was named a preseason First Team All-American by the Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, Sporting News, Consensus Draft Services, and GoDaddy.com. Playboy and ESPN.com named him a preseason All-American.
Brock received fourth team All-American honors from Phil Steele and honorable mention All-American from Consensus Draft Services.
Brock and junior running back Ed Wesley were named preseason honorable mention All-Americans by GoDaddy.com.
Junior running back Matthew Tucker and Wesley have been placed on the Doak Walker Award watch list for the nation’s top running back.
Wesley is also on the watch lists for CFPA Running Back of the Year and the Maxwell Award. The Maxwell Award is given to the best player in college football.
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football honored Carder as the best Linebacker in Texas and Texas Defensive Player of the Year. Carder was also placed on first team All-Texas College with Wesley.
Sophomore defensive end Stansly Maponga and Brock were placed on the second team All-Texas College along with sophomore wide receiver Josh Boyce, senior offensive guard Kyle Dooley, senior punter Anson Kelton, and senior kicker Ross Evans. Offensive tackle Jeff Olson has been nominated for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award and the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. Both of these awards honor athletes for their work on and off the field.
“We are trying to make them complete guys here,” said Patterson. “That’s what our job is and what we are trying to get accomplished.”
TCU will start the season ranked 14th in the Associated Press poll.
