Texas and Big 12 Capsules: TCU's Patterson: From grad assistant to BCS buster
FORT WORTH (AP) — Long before Gary Patterson became the BCS-busting head coach at TCU, he was making about $257 a month as a graduate assistant at Tennessee Tech.
Patterson was helping to build the Tennessee Tech program literally with hammers and saws in the early 1980s. He stayed at the head coach's house while also working toward a master's degree in educational administration with the expectation of being a high school coach.
"He had a room he could sleep in at least," recalled Gary Darnell, then the Golden Eagles' coach.
Patterson, who says he worked full time but not for full-time pay, is now in his 10th season as TCU's head coach and making significantly more money.
The fourth-ranked Horned Frogs (1-0) play their home opener Saturday night against FCS team Tennessee Tech (0-1), the first game between the two schools providing a reunion of sorts.
Patterson made eight other coaching stops — none at the high school level — between leaving Cookeville, Tenn., after the 1985 season that was his third at Tennessee Tech, and arriving at TCU as defensive coordinator in 1998. He became the Horned Frogs' head coach after the 2000 regular season.
"I would never have dreamed he would have gone that far," said Peggie Parrott, the secretary hired by Darnell's staff who still works in Tech's football office. "He was a grad assistant, and bless their hearts, they get used. ... They're like gophers and do the small, dirty jobs.
When Darnell went to Tennessee Tech in 1983, two things were missing at the small school: money and manpower.
"You try to do everything you can to try to expand that," he said.
One of the ways was to divide one graduate assistant's scholarship among three guys, Patterson being one of them.
As for that $257 monthly salary, Darnell said Patterson might be "stretching that" because the former head coach doesn't remember having enough money in the budget for a 20-something kid coaching linebackers to make that much.
"When we went there, we had to build our offices, the coaches did. We put down the carpet, painted the walls," Patterson said. "We had to build the weight room, we redid the players' locker room. We're talking about sanding by hand and cutting boards."
Parrott, who plans to retire after this season, said there were only the "bare essentials" when they started.
"We've come a long way," she said. "Not as far as (Patterson) has."
Patterson last year got a new contract through 2016 that pays him over $2 million per year. The coach also led fundraising efforts to secure the $105 million needed for a planned renovation of TCU's football stadium after this season.
"We were at about $90," Darnell said, with a laugh, referring to their building budget at Tech.
A Kansas native, Patterson played two seasons at a Kansas junior college and then went to Kansas State, where he spent two seasons as a player and another as a grad assistant.
Darnell, who had been K-State's defensive coordinator, took several youngsters east with him. Darnell expected Patterson to coach the way he played.
"I had seen Gary play, I knew," Darnell said. "That has as much to do with it. He was real eager."
Darnell hired former Kansas State assistants Dennis Franchione (offense) and Dick Bumpas (defense) as his coordinators, and surrounded them with a bunch of minimally paid kids.
"One of my impressions at the time was they brought in too many young guys that were just out of school," said Tennessee Tech associate athletic director Frank Harrell, then an assistant basketball coach who became good friends with Franchione.
"Gary Patterson stood out because he was unlike the other guys. He was serious about coaching, serious about getting his master's degree," Harrell said. "Franchione talked about what a student of the game he is. ... He made me notice Patterson. As we talked, he always pointed out that Gary was a cut above all those other young coaches."
Parrott will be in Fort Worth this week and looks forward to seeing Patterson.
It was Franchione who later hired Patterson as his defensive coordinator at New Mexico (1996-98), then took him to TCU. Patterson became head coach when Franchione left for Alabama.
Tennessee Tech coach Watson Brown is a Cookeville, Tenn., native. He was coaching elsewhere when he went home for a clinic during Darnell's tenure and met Patterson for the first time.
"I could already tell he was energetic, a hard worker. I saw that quick," Brown said this week. "He's just moved up the ladder, he's done it the right way."
Patterson is 86-28 at TCU, which last year had its first undefeated regular season since its only national championship in 1938, then lost the Fiesta Bowl to Boise State. He was the Associated Press Coach of the Year, the first to come from outside the six conferences with automatic BCS bids.
Tennessee Tech was 3-29 in three seasons Patterson was there with Darnell (1983-85). The most notable victory came in the finale of the first season when the one-win Golden Eagles upset one-loss Middle Tennessee State 12-8 to knock their instate rival out of the Division I-AA playoffs.
"There are not many fond memories when you win three games in three years and you're the youngest coach on the staff, and everything rolls downhill," Patterson said, though he does relish the "good people there" and that big victory. "They had T-shirts, posters, hats and they did not go to the playoffs. ... That's the best football memory I have of Tennessee Tech."
Big 12
Fla. St. visit stirs memories of Sooners' 2000 title
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Trace the origins of Oklahoma's most recent rise to national powerhouse status and you'll find Florida State.
Ten years after the programs met in the Orange Bowl with the national championship on the line, the Sooners are getting a trip down memory lane in preparation for a visit from the No. 17 Seminoles on Saturday.
The landmark 13-2 victory re-established Oklahoma as a force, eliminating the doubts that lingered even after an undefeated run through the regular season that included a victory against top-ranked Nebraska.
The Sooners had averaged only six wins per season in the decade before the 2000 season and proved they were back by beating Florida State, the defending champion. The Seminoles had finished among the top four teams in the AP poll for 14 straight seasons before that Orange Bowl and entered the game as nearly a double-digit favorite.
"For us, it was more or less trying to prove something. And now, once that happened, nobody really looks at Oklahoma as underdogs or like they don't have the players to do this or the players to do that," said Derrick Strait, a starting cornerback on the 2000 Sooners.
"I'm glad that we were able to do that because nobody ever respected us, even all the way up to the national championship game being undefeated."
Since then, respect has never been an issue. Coach Bob Stoops has kept the Oklahoma in the national championship mix more years than not and distanced the program from the mediocrity of the previous decade with five more Big 12 championships and a handful of BCS bowl appearances.
"You look around at this place now, it's not built on one team or one season, but I think that certainly jump-started the success this team had during the course of that decade," said Josh Heupel, who was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2000 as a quarterback and now coaches the position for Oklahoma.
"A program that had been down recently because of some things that had happened in the past and to have a resurgence like that obviously catapulted us into the national spotlight again and paid huge dividends for us in recruiting and those types of things. It had a dramatic impact on this program."
Stoops said the best characteristics of that championship team were toughness and smarts, but he's not about to judge whether his seventh-ranked Sooners have those qualities so early in this season. That's part of how he's learned to deal with the success that's followed in the years that followed that first showdown with the Seminoles.
He got his first bunch of Sooners to buy in with grueling preseason workouts that they'd never experienced before. Linebacker Rocky Calmus remembers teammates losing their lunch, only to be told, "That's just the warm up."
"For the first two years here, I was trying to convince our guys they could do something like that. Then afterward, you get a bunch of recruits who come in and think just because they put the jersey on, it's going to happen," Stoops said.
"Now, you're convincing them, 'Wait a minute. You haven't done anything. You've got to earn that.'"
While the Sooners got no attention as a title contender after going 7-5 and losing in the 1999 Independence Bowl, it's practically a rite of the preseason these days. They've been ranked no lower than 10th in the preseason poll every year since then.
"Once you do it, then everyone talks about it the beginning of the year," Stoops said. "Well, no one was talking about that with us until late in the year. So, it is different. It's a whole different mindset."
Since winning that Orange Bowl, Oklahoma has averaged almost 11 wins per season but is 0-3 in championship games.
"It's bittersweet watching the guys and being so close to winning a couple more," Calmus said. "You still have our little legacy, our little moment out there, but we'd sure love to get a few more up on the billboard."
-- Jeff Latzke
Hard work paying off for Gettis
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri senior cornerback Carl Gettis knows he has something to prove entering his senior season, since he was part of a secondary that in 2009 finished last in the Big 12 and 104th nationally in pass defense.
So far, so good.
After an offseason spent working on technique and conditioning with secondary coach Cornell Ford, and even visits with a sports psychologist, Gettis had a strong showing in the season-opening 23-13 win over Illinois. He had eight tackles and made a spectacular one-handed interception in the fourth quarter.
"We knew it was going to be on us to step up and make some plays," Gettis said of the defense. "It's our job to create more opportunities for our offense and that's exactly what we did."
Coach Gary Pinkel concurs that Gettis is trying hard to put last season behind him.
"It's his last year and he wants to play at a whole different level than what we have seen from him in previous years," Pinkel said.
The low point of last season for Gettis and the Missouri defense came Nov. 7 against Baylor, when third-string freshman quarterback Nick Florence threw for a school record 427 yards and three touchdowns in a 40-32 win.
"You can't take anybody lightly, you have to be prepared to be on your A-game each and every day," Gettis said. "We weren't ready to play that game, we weren't at our top focus and we had to fight for our lives and couldn't pull out the victory."
Gettis was determined this year would be different. In addition to the work with Ford, he credits the sports psychologist with teaching him things to use on the field as well as getting him mentally prepared for the grind of the season.
Since spring practices, Gettis has made a point to be the vocal leader of the defense. He was named a game-day captain before the Tigers took the field against Illinois in St. Louis.
"I try to make sure everyone has the right attitude and prepares themselves the right way," Gettis said.
Gettis has been a starter ever since he arrived from Fort Zumwalt West High School in St. Charles County. But before Saturday, he had just two career interceptions.
Coaches and players expect a better showing this season from the entire secondary — all four starters are back, and hope to take some of the pressure off Missouri's vaunted offense.
"We definitely think it's time we get some recognition around here," Gettis said of the defense. "We know that with recognition comes responsibility, and we're ready to earn it."
The Tigers' next game is Saturday at home against McNeese State.
Coaches bring different styles to Iowa, Iowa St.
OWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State's Paul Rhoads is loud, charismatic and upfront about his love of the Cyclones, whether it's on YouTube, at a fan function or on the sidelines.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz can also be charming and his recent contract extension showed how much he enjoys life in Iowa City.
But compared with Rhoads, Ferentz is a church mouse.
Whatever their demeanors, Ferentz and Rhoads both win and they're hugely popular. How they go about their work adds a twist to the heated instate rivalry that resumes Saturday at the home of the ninth-ranked Hawkeyes.
The energetic Rhoads, who grew up just down the road from Ames, has rebuilt once-downtrodden Iowa State (1-0) much faster than many thought possible. He led Iowa State to a winning season in 2009, his first year as the head coach, and the Cyclones looked impressive in beating Northern Illinois 27-10 in last week's opener.
"I know he was very enthused about coming back, so I think that's really shown, and it seems like they put a good staff together," Ferentz said Tuesday of Rhoads. "Most importantly, the players have responded to them."
So has Iowa State's fan base, which was stung nearly as much as the players by Gene Chizik's departure for Auburn after a woeful 5-19 mark.
Rhoads, a former Cyclones assistant under Dan McCarney, views Iowa State as a destination job. His passion for Iowa State — most evident in a viral video of his post-game locker room speech after last year's win at Nebraska — has restored some pride.
"We're fired up to have him on our side," Iowa State quarterback Austen Arnaud said. "He brings great enthusiasm to this program."
For all the buzz Rhoads has generated in his brief tenure, though, he's got a ways to go to match what the understated Ferentz has done with the Hawkeyes.
Ferentz, now in his 12th season in Iowa City, is a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year. Last week, he signed a contract extension that goes through 2020 and makes him the league's highest-paid coach.
Iowa is coming off its first BCS bowl win and has a legitimate shot at a national title game appearance in 2010. The Hawkeyes looked strong in their opener, too, dismantling FCS school Eastern Illinois 37-7.
Ferentz's quiet, humble persona defines Iowa. It hasn't always been that way for the Hawkeyes, who suffered through a string off-the-field conduct issues and back-to-back six-win seasons in 2006-07.
Ferentz has steadily pushed the program back into the top 10 and he didn't fire any of his assistants after that rough stretch, either.
Most of Iowa's staff has been with Ferentz for at least a decade, keeping the Hawkeyes on an even keel and reassuring recruits that the guys who brought them in will be there on Senior Day.
"They're known for Iowa's family atmosphere, and it has been everything I've heard about," Iowa safety Tyler Sash said. "The players can get used to being with the same coaches, and future recruits know that the coaches are going to be here."
Ferentz and Rhoads do have one thing in common: a desire to keep the rivalry intact despite potential scheduling changes caused by realignments of both the Big Ten and Big 12.
Both realize how important the Iowa-Iowa State game is to their fans. The seven wins the Cyclones have picked up in the last 12 meetings has also done wonders for a program that once lost 15 straight to Iowa.
Rhoads tried to downplay the importance of the rivalry this week, insinuating that Saturday will be just another game. That seems a stretch for a coach who looked as though he might head-butt linebacker Jake Knott last week after Knott had a big interception.
"The game's got to be played that way. It's got to be played with raw emotion and enthusiasm," Rhoads said.
-- Luke Meredith
Goodman overcomes long odds, surgery
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Aric Goodman faced long odds on the operating table, so he wasn't going to let a little pressure and some harsh words from his quarterback bother him.
Six months ago, surgeons told the University of Colorado's right-footed senior that he had only a 15 percent chance of ever kicking again following right hip surgery on a torn labrum.
Goodman defied the doctors' dire prognosis and returned to nail down the starting job for the third straight season. That's when his get-well wishes were replaced by get-better mandates.
Starting quarterback Tyler Hansen suggested Goodman had "better step up" because his teammates were tired of his inconsistency.
Goodman basically said he was, too.
Goodman made just 15 of 32 field goal attempts in his first two seasons in Boulder after transferring from Wyoming, where he was 10-for-16 in 2006 and is remembered for missing an extra point that cost the Cowboys a win at Virginia.
Enough is enough, said Hansen, who acknowledged getting on Goodman's case on the sideline after he missed a big kick against Nebraska last season.
"He'd better step up. We're tired of it. To drive down the field and you miss a kick, it's not good for the morale of the team and you kind of lose some confidence," Hansen said. "... He'd better make some kicks or the team might go crazy on him."
Goodman said the comments didn't bother him.
"It's not something I didn't already know. I've got to go out there and make kicks when I get a chance to and I know they're all behind me but I can't make mistakes when I get the opportunity to make something happen," Goodman said.
"Excuses aren't going to work anymore. My hip is fully healed. I'm ready to go. When I get an opportunity to get a field goal, I have to go out there and make it."
Goodman did just that in Colorado's 24-3 win over Colorado State last weekend, making all three of his extra points and his only field goal attempt, from 28 yards, while also booting three kickoffs through the end zone.
That should go a long ways toward easing the concerns of his quarterback, who had said if Goodman starts off well, the Buffs will have confidence that he'll have a solid season.
In '08, Goodman kicked a 25-yard field goal in overtime to beat West Virginia and was awarded a scholarship after the game by coach Dan Hawkins. Then, he proceeded to miss his next eight kicks, setting a school futility record.
He hasn't normally missed by much: At Colorado, he's 12-of-16 inside 39 yards with three of those misses hitting the uprights. Beyond 40 yards, he's just 3-of-16 and has hit the uprights four times.
Close doesn't count for anything and certainly won't earn him much sympathy.
Hawkins said he foresees more pats of congratulation than encouraging — or disparaging — words this season.
"He has gone through the fire and he is growing up and matured and learned to handle all of the stresses that come with it," Hawkins said. "Every great athlete, it doesn't matter what sport it is, sometimes you jump the tracks a little bit and mentally you have to work to get back in it. The great thing is that I think he has handled it all pretty well.
"We've had a bunch of guys in there trying to bump him out, and to his credit, he hasn't let them. He has always had an extremely strong leg, and he has always been pretty darn accurate. Even when he has missed, he hasn't missed by far."
Goodman said not having to deal with pain has made a world of difference. Last year, he dealt with a torn groin that was a consequence of his torn labrum.
"It's just nice to get it all healed up and fixed and feel good every day," Goodman said.
Hawkins doesn't know how much of Goodman's problems last season can be pinned on his health.
"Then again, every little thing that's in your head is not good. Doesn't matter if you've got and ingrown toe or a bruised shoulder, particularly at that spot. Because so much of that is rhythm and timing and your stroke and there is so much mentally going into it that any little glitch in there affects you, it's hard to overcome that," Hawkins said.
"He's been a very solid kickoff guy, we've said it before. If the (opposing) offense has to take the ball and drive it 80 yards, that's hard."
Goodman is confident he'll add accuracy to his repertoire this season.
"Yeah, if nothing else I just feel confident in the fact that it's not going to hurt," Goodman said. "I think that's kind of a big thing going into each kick knowing that I'm going to go out there and come off the field without pain."
And without an angry quarterback waiting on the sideline.
-- Arnie Stapleton
Related Story
UW looks to bolster ground game
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — University of Wyoming quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels' numbers in last weekend's season opener against Southern Utah were impressive.
And if the Cowboys are to have success Saturday at No. 5 Texas, it's a safe bet he'll need a similar effort against the Longhorns.
But the one thing Carta-Samuels and the rest of the Wyoming offense will also need is some balance, something that was definitely lacking against the Thunderbirds.
"I know we're better (running the ball) than we were on Saturday," UW coach Dave Christensen said.
UW ran 25 times for 36 yards on Southern Utah, an average of 1.4 yards an attempt. College rushing numbers can be a little deceiving because sack yardage is included in the total, but Wyoming's running backs ran 15 times for just 54 yards.
Christensen said everybody had a hand in the problem.
"We've got to block better," Christensen said. "We also missed a few reads with the quarterback between the handoff and the read. Scheme-wise we need to do a better job."
The running game will get some help this week with the return of freshman running back Nehemie Kankolongo. Kankolongo, who was suspended for the Southern Utah game for a team rules violation, was the projected starter at running back through most of the summer.
"It certainly adds depth to the position," Christensen said of Kankolongo's return. "Now we have more guys that we can hand the ball off to back there. He was a starter before he had a suspension and was injured so it's good to have him back out there."
The Longhorns gave up 88 yards rushing to Rice in a 34-17 win in Houston on Saturday. Last year UW rushed for 85 yards against Texas in Laramie.
Wednesday was the second practice for the Cowboys since the death of freshman teammate Ruben Narcisse on Monday.
"I think we're making some progress," Christensen said. "Obviously it's going to take some time, as they all know and we all know. We just do the best we can, take it one day at a time and try have some productive days."
Despite practicing in just helmets and shoulder pads, there were some physical moments during the practice. Christensen said that's to be expected as players and coaches deal with the emotions of the last few days.
"It's therapy to come out and practice right now and I thought the intensity level was good," he said. "It was another good day of practice and gets the game plan down."
The last time Christensen was in Texas' Memorial Stadium, it wasn't too pleasant.
The Longhorns, ranked No. 1 at the time, beat then No. 11 Missouri 56-31 in 2008 with Christensen serving as Mizzou's offensive coordinator.
Since then, UT has renovated the stadium to its current capacity of 100,119, the sixth-largest college football stadium in the country.
The Cowboys have been pumping in crowd noise this week during practice to simulate the expected conditions on Saturday.
"It's going to be a big crowd and there's going to be some noise factor involved in that," Christensen said. "It's still a hundred-yard field, it's just got a few more seats.
"Any stadium that's full and the crowd gets crazy, is going to give you problems. I've been in stadiums where there's 30,000 that you can't hear. The atmosphere's going to be exciting for the kids but they have to get focused in."
Christensen also said the team has been in a hydration program for the past couple of weeks to prepare for the hot and humid conditions in Austin.
The forecast for Austin Saturday calls for a high of 92 around kickoff with 75 percent humidity and a 20 percent chance of rain.
-- Scott Nulph
Idaho QB Enderle heads home to face No. 6 Huskers
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle insists he won't go into Saturday's game against his home-state Nebraska Cornhuskers with an I'll-show-them attitude.
You couldn't blame him if he did, though.
Enderle is from North Platte, 225 miles west of Lincoln on Interstate 80, and he said he lived and died with the Big Red as a kid.
When no scholarship offer came from former Nebraska coach Bill Callahan five years ago, Enderle was content to don the Vandals' silver and gold.
"It's their decision, it's their scholarships to hand out," Enderle said Wednesday night from Moscow, Idaho. "I got a scholarship here at Idaho. It's been a real good spot to me, and I've appreciated everything they've done."
Even though Enderle maintains a stoic exterior, and Callahan was replaced by Bo Pelini three years ago, Idaho coach Robb Akey said he knows his fourth-year starter considers the meeting with the sixth-ranked Cornhuskers a red-letter game.
"Any time you go back home and play, there is an excitement about that and a great desire to do well," Akey said. "He's fired up about this game. At the same time he's taking a very mature approach.
"I gave him a hard time (this week). I said to him, 'I don't have to worry about you wigging out on this game, do I?' We both laughed."
Good times were few during Enderle's early years at Idaho. Akey is his third head coach. The Vandals lost 21 of 24 games in 2007-08.
But last year they went 8-5 and finished fourth in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference after being picked last. They ended the season with a 43-42 Humanitarian Bowl win over Bowling Green, which Enderle produced with a touchdown pass with 4 seconds left and a 2-point conversion pass.
"We had to change our mind set," Enderle said. "We showed some flashes of being a good football team my first two years but couldn't do it for 60 minutes. The times we were playing bad, we were playing really bad, so people would hang four touchdowns in a row on us and then you're kind of out of the game."
The Vandals, whose home stadium seats 16,000, will play in one of the bastions of college football at 85,000-seat Memorial Stadium. Enderle doesn't think his team will be intimidated.
His first start was the 2007 opener at the Los Angeles Coliseum against then-No. 1 USC. He also has played at Arizona and Washington, not to mention conference games against Boise State as it was emerging as a national power.
"We've played tough opponents in the past," he said. "It's going to be a fun deal to play a very tough defense and a very good offense. We respect everything they do, but we have some stuff we do well ourselves."
Enderle was 24 of 37 for 311 yards and two touchdowns in the Vandals' 45-0 win over FCS team North Dakota last week.
Akey said no one would predict an Idaho victory this week. Enderle said the Vandals are used to being underestimated.
"Not a lot of people thought we were going to win any games last year," he said. "Some people use it as a motivation. They kind of have a chip on their shoulder. Me personally, I just kind of brush it off. I don't care what fans and critics say about me because my whole life I've kind of been an underdog."
Enderle, at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, was a prototype pro-style quarterback coming out of North Platte High.
Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico State and Toledo showed some interest, but only Idaho offered a scholarship. That was only because former offensive coordinator Nate Kaczor knew of Enderle because he tried to recruit his older brother to the Division II University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he previously coached.
Callahan became interested in Enderle in December 2005 — a few weeks before signing day — only after top quarterback recruit Josh Freeman broke his pledge and signed with Kansas State.
Five years later, Enderle likely will finish his career among the top three career passers at Idaho, and he is emerging as an NFL prospect.
He doesn't care if he's called an overachiever. He says he's just doing his thing.
"Nobody thought I was going to be a college-type quarterback, and my first two years we didn't have the success the fans wanted, so the first person they look at is the quarterback," Enderle said. "I just kind of try and brush that stuff off now."
-- Eric Olson
