This Ain't Chopped Liver
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Why Does UT's $34 Million Head Coach Need a "Special Assistant"?
Ex-TCU coach Gary Patterson's move to Austin is a script only the deep-pocketed and dysfunctional Longhorns could write.
Excerpts:
When it comes to sheer rubbernecking entertainment value, the Longhorns are lapping the field. In this latest installment of the saga, Patterson has agreed to join the Longhorns as a special assistant to Sarkisian, the head football coach. In reality, Patterson is being asked to save UT athletic director Chris Del Conte’s butt.
Around this time last year, Del Conte, who worked with Patterson when both were at TCU, finished a $79 million transaction in which he fired Tom Herman and replaced him with Sarkisian, then an Alabama assistant coach. (For those counting at home, that’s about $24 million to buy out Herman and his coaching staff, plus Sarkisian’s six-year, $34.2 million deal, plus around $21 million in total salary for Sark’s assistants.)
Sarkisian promptly engineered one of the most embarrassing seasons the Forty Acres has ever seen—which is pretty impressive for a program whose recent history has been largely defined by underachieving. In the past twelve seasons, UT has managed only one finish better than nineteenth in the AP rankings.
From a practical viewpoint, Patterson can provide two elements Texas badly needs. First, he’s one of the finest defensive minds in college football. His 4-2-5 setup with two linebackers and five defensive backs is copied in some form by virtually every team. And if teams typically reflect their head coach, the Longhorns would do well to reflect a little of Gary Patterson. When he had TCU rolling, the team’s toughness and consistent effort were the gold standard almost every other program measured itself against.
Patterson does not tolerate fools. At times, he doesn’t tolerate much of anyone. But he’s a great, proven coach, and he loves what he does. TCU fired him after an October loss to Kansas State, but Patterson still showed up the following week to help his former coaches construct a game plan for Baylor.
As special assistant, Patterson won’t be an official member of the coaching staff. That is, he won’t be stepping onto the practice field to, you know, coach players. Will he serve in more of advisory role? Was he given a perch to wait, before eventually taking over as defensive coordinator? Is Patterson UT’s insurance policy at head coach, in case the Longhorns flop again under Sarkisian?
Patterson’s strength during two decades at TCU was a strong-willed, hands-on approach that, at times, put players, staff, and administrators on edge. Perhaps that kind of hard coaching can have diminishing returns over time, but right now, it’s difficult to name any college football program in the nation that needs a kick in the butt more than Texas.
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