FORT WORTH, Texas – Gary Patterson isn’t a fan of night games.

Asked what he likes about them in anticipation of No. 4 TCU’s kickoff this week against Kansas (7 p.m./FOX), Patterson responded: “Not one thing.” He’s a Coaches Poll voter, and night games mean Patterson stays up late to catch up and he doesn’t get “two or three hours to be a human being.”

Welcome back to the national stage, TCU, where even your matchups with a one-win Kansas team are attractive enough to draw primetime eyeballs.

The Horned Frogs (6-0) hadn't really departed after a 2014 run that saw them win 12 games and miss a College Football Playoff berth by the slimmest of margins. But TCU had a hiccup 6-7 campaign a year ago, which allowed the national lens to trail away from Fort Worth despite 23 wins the previous two seasons.

TCU entered the 2017 unranked and was picked fifth in the Big 12’s preseason poll.

Asked if anyone outside of Fort Worth would’ve predicted TCU as the nation’s No. 4 team at the halfway point, senior receiver Desmon White responded: “Nah.” Then he laughed.

He has reason to. The Horned Frogs, with a pair of Top 25 wins, are a strong CFB Playoff contender despite the preseason doubt. White knows a little something about that. He was a freshman on the 2014 team, and the similarities between the two are striking.

TCU 2014: Prior year record (4-8); Returning Starters - 18; Big 12 Preseason Poll (7th)

TCU 2017: Prior year record (6-7); Returning Starters - 17; Big 12 Preseason Poll (5th)

But the parallels go further than that.

The Horned Frogs in 2013 were young, inexperienced and struggled in several areas.

On defense, TCU finished 54th nationally in points allowed per game. The Horned Frogs have only finished worse than 30th three times in scoring defense since 2008. Want to guess when one of the other two times was? Yep, 2016.

Offensively, the Horned Frogs struggled in all areas as they adjusted to the Big 12. TCU’s quarterbacks – Casey Pachall and Trevone Boykin – combined to complete 57.3 percent of their passes and threw 14 touchdowns against 17 interceptions. Meanwhile, the Horned Frogs averaged just 3.5 yards per carry. Things weren’t nearly as bad in 2016. But Kenny Hill threw for 18 touchdowns against 14 interceptions in his first year as the starter, and TCU ranked eighth in the Big 12 scoring 31 points per game.

In the offseason of 2014, Gary Patterson made a drastic staff change and brought in Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie as co-offensive coordinators with the directive to construct an offense that could compete in the Big 12. The result was an Air Raid attack that ranked second nationally in points scored per game, turning Boykin into a Heisman finalist in the process.

“He brought a lot of excitement to us in the spring of ’14,” Patterson said of Meacham.

This offseason Meacham departed for Kansas, and Cumbie took over as the sole play-caller. The result has been an offense that asks Hill to do less and places an emphasis on running the football – TCU averaged 37.5 rushes per game in 2016 versus 41.8 this year. White said things are more streamlined with one offensive voice calling plays.

“A lot is in Cumbie’s hands,” White said. “Last year it was both of them doing their thing. (This year) it’s Cumbie’s voice.”

Hill’s play, like Boykin’s, is a huge part of TCU’s accession.

In 2014, Boykin went from a wide receiver playing quarterback to a true dual-threat. He threw for 3,901 yards, 33 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions in addition to 707 yards rushing. In 2017, Hill has gone from turnover-prone to one of the nation’s most efficient passers. He’s thrown 10 touchdowns against three interceptions, and he ranks eighth nationally with a 69.8 percent completion rate.

“He’s really confident,” White said of Hill. "He went through that time where people was talking bad about him. He wanted to change that. … He’s our quarterback. We lean on him.”

Run defense, specifically along the defensive line, has been a calling card of Patterson-coached teams. But TCU finished 54th nationally allowing 4.22 yards per rush last year. The 2016 Horned Frogs were depth-deprived. This year, they feature three new starters along their defensive line. Chief among them is redshirt freshman Ross Blacklock, a 326-pound anchor at defensive tackle. Defensive ends Ben Banogu and Mat Boesen, both former transfers, have combined for six sacks and 11 tackles for loss.

There were 11 underclassmen in TCU’s two-deep for the Liberty Bowl last year. The Horned Frogs were young, and that inexperience can be costly in a Patterson-coached defense where schemes are complicated and experience is rewarded.

“In the beginning, it kinds of gives you headaches,” Banogu said of Patterson’s system.

Those are gone now, and Banogu said: “I just know we have a pretty good sense of chemistry.

Even TCU’s win-loss margin through the first six games is similar. In 2014, the Horned Frogs held a 30-point margin of victory with a Top 10 win and a pair of victories over ranked teams. This year’s TCU team holds a 24-point margin of victory with Top 10 win and a pair of wins over ranked teams.

The only difference is TCU’s 2014 team lost a game in that stretch – at No. 5 Baylor by a field goal – while this Horned Frog group remains unbeaten.

So does this year remind the Horned Frogs of 2014? Patterson, in typical coach speak, said every team is different. He’s right. This TCU team is deeper and more prepared for Big 12 play than the 2014 iteration was because its the program's sixth year in the conference. Personnel, at least most of it, has changed, too. But Patterson's philosophies remain in place. That’s probably why his players will admit there are similarities between the two teams.

“A little bit. A little bit,” White said. “We’re 6-0. We lost to Baylor there in 2014. But, like I said, we don’t have a loss yet. So we’re doing pretty good.”

That 2014 group famously missed the CFB Playoff after the committee dropped the Horned Frogs from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final rankings. Patterson, three years later, is still asked questions about that scenario. Two queries at his press conference Tuesday were in regards to his opinion on the CFB Playoff formula and running up the score.

“You’re talking to somebody in this process who was third and was dropped to sixth once before and won 55-3 (over Iowa State),” Patterson said. “So did it matter? It didn’t matter. We were 11-1 at the time.”

That’s why, cliché as it is, Patterson is preaching the mantra of “Eyes up Keep Climbing” to his team. The Horned Frogs are back on the national landscape, and their final six games are critical to them staying there. There’s only one ranked team on that slate – No. 9 Oklahoma – but three in-state games present challenges.

Patterson said you can’t fool 20-year-olds. They hear the noise. He just wants all eyes focused forward.

“Eyes up keep climbing means you have goals, but the higher up you get, the harder it gets. The thinner the air is,” Patterson said. “But you have to keep going … You started outside the Top 25 and started preseason picked (fifth). So you can either listen to them and look down or you can do what you need to do and look up.”

Nobody at TCU has forgotten the Horned Frogs’ place in the preseason polls, just like nobody’s forgotten that 2014 run. Ask White what it would take for this team to really remind him of 2014, and he can’t help but look down at his finger where his 2014 Big 12 title ring will sometimes rest.

“A Big 12 Championship and a national championship,” White said. “That’s what everyone on this team wants.”