Patterson’s voice carries weight already
AUSTIN — Seven months into his new gig as special assistant to Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, the sight of Gary Patterson sauntering around in a burnt orange polo still inspires double takes.
“Just seeing him around the facility is weird sometimes knowing that he recruited me to go to TCU,” fifth-year senior linebacker DeMarvion Overshown said Thursday at Big 12 media days. “And now he's in burnt orange, just happy, walking around, smiling.”
It is weird. Especially because Patterson, the longtime TCU coach who literally has a statue in front of the stadium, spent the past decade knocking the Longhorns off their pedestal and serving as an annual thorn in the side of whatever head coach opposed him.
Mack Brown. Charlie Strong. Tom Herman. TCU beat them all under Patterson's guidance, running up a 7-3 record against a program that beat up on the Horned Frogs for decades in the old Southwest Conference.
It never seemed to matter that Texas always had higher-ranked recruiting classes and one of the most enviable war chests in college athletics. Patterson’s Horned Frogs had won six of seven in the series before Sarkisian arrived and nearly made it seven of eight, though Texas held on for the 32-27 win up in Fort Worth last October.
Still, Sarkisian figured he’d flip the adage on its head once Patterson and TCU ended their 21-year marriage last Halloween: If you can’t beat ’em, have ’em join you.
“One of the bigger things I’ve learned is just kind of how he looked at our offense and how he looks at our offense and what he would do to try to stop us,” Sarkisian said. “I like people that are a thorn in my side because I think we’re pretty good at what we do. And when they can evaluate us and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t very good,’ or, ‘You could make it harder if you did this,’ I take that constructive criticism to heart.”
Patterson’s breakdowns of Sarkisian’s offense have helped identify some weak points and blind spots. But that’s not the core of the former Kansas State linebacker’s task at Texas.
Defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski was a sideline star at Washington, where he engineered some of the nation’s stingiest defenses from 2014 to 2020. But his first season in the Big 12 was a train wreck.
Texas ranked 90th or worse in scoring defense, total defense, rushing defense, red zone defense and third down defense in 2021. Five different teams topped 200 rushing yards against Kwiatkowski’s leaky run-stopping scheme, and the Longhorns’ inability to force punts and create turnovers led to one of the nation’s worst time-of-possession deficits.
Sarkisian believes that was a blip. And he’s repeatedly emphasized that this is still Kwiatkowski’s defense, for better or worse.
But Patterson has considerable input. He’ll work with every position group, often darting from one to the next after sprinkling some knowledge. And he’s become a fount of knowledge for staffers, players, whoever he happens to run into.
“He’s got great rapport with the other coaches on staff, with the other staff members, with our players,” Sarkisian said. “The biggest thing for me is him being a sounding board for our defensive staff, him being a sounding board for coach Kwiatkowski throughout spring ball as we’re game planning for our early opponents of just different ways to play things, adjustments that may need to be made based on if something could occur.”
Patterson’s sustained success against Texas was appealing to Sarkisian and played a role in the hire. But his overall resume wasn’t too shabby, either: 181-79 overall, 11-6 in bowl games, six conference titles in three different leagues, too many coach of the year awards to list.
TCU also produced 55 NFL draft picks during Patterson’s tenure. That group includes a handful of recent first and secondround defensive picks in defensive end L.J. Collier (2019), linebacker Ben Banogu (2019), cornerback Jeff Gladney (2020), tackle Ross Blacklock (2020) and safety Trevon Moehrig (2021).
The guitar-strumming troubadour is a quirky character, but he knows how to coach and develop talent. That sort of track record makes players tune in.
“Every little bit that you get from a coach like coach Patterson, it means a lot because just knowing his resume, knowing the guys that he’s put at the next level, if he says something you’re gonna sit down and listen,” Overshown said.
The Texas defense must be better in 2022, or Sarkisian’s never going to live up to his “All Gas, No Brakes” mantra. And while Patterson’s presence alone isn’t a panacea, it doesn’t hurt to have a mind like that wandering around the Longhorns’ facilities.
“He just comes around and drops his wisdom on us,” senior edge defender Ovie Oghoufo said. “Wonderful defensive coach. I wasn’t really familiar with him before he got here but now I’m learning the little tricks he teaches us, the little techniques and drills he has us doing. It’s amazing. It works.”