Texas football’s Gary Patterson tabbed as Nebraska HC candidate
In a weekend of college football news that doesn’t seem to stop, especially as it relates to the Texas football program, there is another update worth noting from the last few hours.
It now looks like a key part of the Texas staff, special assistant to the head coach Gary Patterson could be a potential candidate for a head coaching job elsewhere. The former TCU Horned Frogs longtime head coach is now getting mentioned as a possible target for the Nebraska Cornhuskers as they now look to find their replacement for the recently-fired Scott Frost.
With Nebraska firing Frost after a bad loss for the Huskers this weekend to the Georgia Southern Eagles at home, there are multiple candidate lists coming out as the first high-profile job opening has arrived around the college football landscape.
Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports was the first to mention Patterson’s name as a potential candidate for the Nebraska head coaching search in a piece published on Sep. 11. Dodd noted Patterson as a possible candidate for the Huskers that “makes so much sense”. He added that Patterson was great in scheming up the Longhorns’ defensive to hang tough with the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in Austin on Sep. 10.
Texas football special assistant Gary Patterson in the running for the Nebraska job?
A few of the other possible head coaching candidates that Dodd mentioned in connection with Nebraska were Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, TV analyst Urban Meyer, Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, and Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops, among a couple others.
The other list worth mentioning that included Patterson as a possible candidate for the Nebraska job came via Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. In the shortlist of possible coaching candidates that Feldman mentioned on Sep. 11, Patterson was included in a mix that included a few other names around the Big 12.
Feldman also included Campbell, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold, and Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman as some possible candidates for Nebraska to interview this fall.
It’s worth noting that Patterson was the only Texas coach/assistant that was mentioned on any of these lists in connection with the Nebraska head coaching job. Most of the candidates mentioned in connection with this newfound job opening are other significant head coaches around college football.
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Patterson is currently in his first year as the special assistant to the head coach with the Longhorns. Prior to this job under head coach Steve Sarkisian with the Longhorns, Patterson served as TCU’s head coach for a little more than two decades.