TCU Picks Pat Sullivan as Football Coach

Pat Sullivan, who won the 1971 Heisman Trophy as a quarterback at Auburn, was named football coach at Texas Christian on Thursday and immediately vowed to guide the Horned Frogs to the Cotton Bowl, an achievement the school has not accomplished in 33 years.

Sullivan, 41, an Auburn assistant, received a five-year contract at an undisclosed salary. Sullivan, twice a consensus All-American at Auburn, succeeds Jim Wacker, who resigned last week to accept a similar job at Minnesota.

Wacker’s nine-year record of 40-58-2 included only two winning seasons, but his 1991 team was 7-4, and most of the players will return.

Buddy Dike, a former TCU player and a member of the search committee, said Sullivan is “young, energetic and just what our program needs.”

Sullivan, who tutored Auburn’s quarterbacks as an assistant coach the past six years, indicated that he will abandon the Horned Frogs’ wide-open “triple-shoot” attack for a multiple offense.

“We’ll throw the ball around, and it will be exciting,” he said.