Joe Gillespie carrying TCU’s defensive legacy forward

When TCU coach Sonny Dykes called Joe Gillespie and offered him his first opportunity to coordinate a defense at the Power 5 level, you might think Gillespie felt he’d been given a gift.

It would be an hour’s drive from his hometown of Stephenville, Texas, after all, giving him the coach’s dream of having relatives nearby in a place he knows like the back of his hand.

But there was another side to it.

“Of all jobs, why do I have to follow that guy?” Gillespie told FOX Sports.

“That guy” would be Gary Patterson — now an assistant at Texas — who is so monumental to TCU that they built him a monument, a life-sized statue that can be found on campus.

Patterson had built TCU’s identity around playing stifling defense, and while he and TCU were making appearances in the Rose Bowl in 2010 and the Peach Bowl in 2014, Gillespie was coaching for high school state championships at Stephenville High School.

Now Gillespie, who had coached with Art Briles, Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Famer Mike Copeland, Bill Young and Philip Montgomery at Tulsa — all coaches he worked with and for at Stephenville — would have the unenviable task of carrying Patterson’s legacy forward as the defensive play-caller at TCU.

Gillespie and the other members of TCU’s staff understand the legend they chose to follow. Dykes, offensive coordinator Garrett Riley — USC coach Lincoln Riley’s little brother — and Gillespie are all native Texans and have the utmost respect for what Patterson accomplished at TCU.

They also wanted to continue to build on the foundation Patterson laid. As defensive coordinator, that meant Gillespie was in the spotlight, and during 15 days of practice in the spring, he saw what his defense might be capable of doing.

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“You go back to last spring,” Gillespie told me, “and it’s just sheer install. Half the time, my players were looking at me cross-eyed. And I told them you’ve got to continue to believe. Trust me, and I promise this stuff will work.”

He didn’t know if it would, but he would notice an attitude in the players who would become his 2022 TCU defense, that stood apart from other defenses he’d coached in the past.

“We had the spring game, and they finally started looking like they were grasping the defense a little bit,” he said. “And they knew that they were just starting to scratch the surface of their potential and really starting to understand what this is about.

“I can remember, as we were walking off the field that day, all of them said in one way or another, ‘Shucks, Coach, I wish this was still going. I wish we had another 15 days of practice.’ Typically, especially in spring ball, when that last play is done so are your players. But these guys weren’t. I knew then that we’ve got something brewing here, and it can be special. Then in fall camp those boys just showed up extremely hungry.”

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After making a name for himself among Texas high school coaches over the two decades at Stephenville, Gillespie earned his first chance to become a defensive coordinator at the collegiate level for Tulsa, replacing a local legend in Young.

Young had coached and coordinated defenses from Ohio State to Oklahoma to USC. It was Young who coordinated Kansas’ 2007 defense and is, in part, responsible for the best year of Jayhawks football ever.

It was Young, an Okie, who coordinated Tulsa’s defense from 2015 to 2018. It was Young who hired Gillespie to become his linebackers coach. And it was Young who stepped aside, retiring to make way for Gillespie to employ his brand of pressurized, 3-3-5 defense. 

At Tulsa, coaching next to one of his best friends in Montgomery, Gillespie developed outside linebacker Zaven Collins into a Bednarik Award winner, Nagurski Award winner and first-round selection in the 2021 NFL Draft. But through those six years, it was clear he and his family didn’t want to stay Okie for long.

“I was born and raised in this area (North Texas), and it’s home for me,” Gillespie told FOX Sports. “When we left Texas and went to Tulsa, my family and my initial thought was how fast can we get back home?”

Gillespie chuckled at the thought because he had no idea what his life would look like seven years after choosing to leave his post as high school football coach at Stephenville, the place he spent the first 21 years of his coaching career. But he knows he’s better for it.

“My daughter got her degree from the University of Tulsa,” he said. “She met her husband in Tulsa. They blessed us with three grandchildren — we just had a third one there — and had I not taken that job (in Tulsa), I wouldn’t have those things right now.”

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From fall camp forward, Gillespie implored his TCU players to keep pressing but not too much. There were moments when he felt they were playing fast but without control.

“I could sense a little bit of them thinking ‘We’ve got to get better, and we’ve got to get better right now.’ There’s a little bit of over-urgency. So I started communicating with them that I love the urgency, but you don’t want to be championship-caliber right now. As much as I’d love to play championship-caliber football, maintaining that for 14 weeks is tough. 

“You want to peak right when you need to, and I started telling them that about six weeks ago that come Week 10 or 11, that’s when we’re looking to play some of our best football to date and using those as baselines for playing even better football every week after.”

He deliberately periodized their attitude, not unlike strength coaches periodize their workouts, so that they might peak exactly at the right moment. And boy, have they so far. At Texas last Saturday, Gillespie’s Horned Frogs silenced a loud, burnt-orange-clad majority in Austin.

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RJ Young reacts to the Horned Frogs 17-10 victory over the Longhorns.

With the man who built the TCU defensive brand standing on the opposing sideline, the Horned Frogs held the Longhorns to their lowest offensive output in a game since 1997 (three points), and their lowest total yards in a game since the Big 12 began play in 1996 (199). TCU also held Texas tailback Bijan Robinson, a probable first-round draft pick — to just 29 rushing yards on 12 carries. 

It was nothing short of a defensive masterpiece against Steve Sarkisian, a man who is renowned for his offensive creativity and is a past winner of the Broyles Award winner, given to the nation’s top assistant coach.

Now it’s Gillespie who is in the mix for the Broyles Award (for the second time), listed as one of 51 November nominees for the honor. He’ll face stiff competition from Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken, among others.

If Gillespie wins, there’s no telling how long he’ll remain an assistant coach. Eight of the last nine Broyles Award winners have become Power 5 head coaches after winning it, including Mike Locksley (Maryland), Brent Venables (Oklahoma), Tony Elliott (Virginia), Riley and Sarkisian.

So has he thought about the prospect of running his own big-time college football program?

“Has it crossed my mind? Absolutely,” he said. “But I love what I’m doing at TCU. God’s always given me a feeling of peace when contemplating the right decision for me and my family. It’s the peace that brought me to Tulsa and the peace that brought me to TCU. So if there’s peace in a position like that then heck yeah. But I’m pretty peaceful now.”

By all accounts, he should be. The 10-0 Horned Frogs are one of just four undefeated teams left in the sport and one of just four who control their own destiny regarding the College Football Playoff. Win the next three games, starting with Baylor on Saturday (Noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) and they should be in.

[What we’re watching in TCU-Baylor]

And Gillespie knows what a CFP appearance would mean for the Horned Frog faithful. After all, back in 2014, a bunch of suits in a boardroom picked Ohio State over TCU and Baylor for the coveted fourth spot in the playoff, leading folks in Fort Worth to believe if their brand was the size of the Buckeyes’, perhaps they would’ve been the ones to win the national title that season.

The wound is still sore around Amon G. Carter Stadium, and now that they’ve got the CFP selection committee right where they want them, Gillespie wants to help those TCU fans see it through.

“We understand what we’ve done up to this point, but it’s not over,” he said. “We’re gonna have to win out. And just like anything in life, I don’t want to go in on somebody else’s merit. I want to go in on my own.  So we gotta go take care of our business.”

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RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.

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