Patterson cautions his team to forget about the polls

Sep 3, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; TCU Horned Frogs head coach Gary Patterson looks on during the first half against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at TCF Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

After five games and about twice as many injuries, the TCU Horned Frogs are right back where they started the season -- ranked No. 2 in the AP top 25 poll.

After Week 1 they drifted back to No. 3, dropped as low as No. 4, and then as others have fallen, TCU returned to No. 2 as it heads into Saturday's road game at injury depleted, but always dangerous Kansas State.

But if anybody in purple is paying attention to rankings at this point, coach Gary Patterson says he has cautioned strongly against it.

"If they're worried about that, then Sunday [when the AP top 25 and the coaches poll are released] they'll be disappointed," Patterson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Because if you don't win by 'X' amount or you don't do this, don't do that, you're going to drop anyway."

Patterson should know. He saw his team spend a number of weeks ranked in the top four of the College Football Playoff rankings. The Frogs were ranked No. 3 in the penultimate poll and then even after blowing out Iowa State in the final regular-season game, the only rankings that mattered pulled the carpet out from under them.

Everybody remembers what happened. TCU inexplicably dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 and out of playoff position.

"Every week in this league, you just need to find a way to hold them to one less and score one more," Patterson said. "If we can do that, then everybody stays pretty happy. If you don't do that, no matter how you played, if you got beat 3-0, it doesn't matter. There's somebody upset."

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