Former TCU coach Gary Patterson hired as special assistant at Texas
Longtime TCU coach Gary Patterson has moved south down Interstate 35.
Patterson was officially announced as a special assistant to coach Steve Sarkisian at Texas on Friday. Patterson's hire at Texas had been weeks in the making as Patterson looked to stay in college football and Texas attempts to climb back to the top of college football.
Patterson and TCU parted ways on Oct. 31 after the school had asked him to stay through the rest of the season before making a coaching change at the end of the season. TCU was 3-5 at the time and failed to qualify for a bowl game. Neither did Texas, as the Longhorns went 5-7 in Sarkisian's disappointing first season in Austin.
One of those five wins came against Patterson's Horned Frogs. That was just Texas’ third win against Patterson and the Horned Frogs since TCU joined the Big 12 in 2012. Texas is just 3-7 against TCU in that span despite having a 64-27-1 overall lead in the series between the schools.
Patterson's dismissal was one of the more surprising moves of the busy coaching carousel at the end of 2021. Patterson had been at TCU for 24 seasons and spent 21 as the team's head coach. He's the man largely responsible for TCU's rise to the top of college football in the 2000s and a significant reason why TCU is in the Big 12.
Now he'll be a sounding board of sorts for Sarkisian in his third stop as a head coach. The former Alabama offensive coordinator has never won 10 games in a season in over seven seasons as a head coach at Texas, USC and Washington. Sarkisian’s best season came in 2014 when USC went 9-4 and won the Holiday Bowl. Texas, meanwhile, has won 10 games just once since 2009, a feat Patterson's Horned Frogs accomplished five times in that span.
