Most interesting college football coaches? Why TCU’s Gary Patterson should crack list
Gary Patterson came across one of those internet lists that decided to rank the 25 most interesting coaches in college football. The TCU coach was nowhere to be found on the list.
“I completely don’t understand,” Patterson said, grinning. “You show me one that can cook, play the guitar, sky dives, scuba dives, goes on safaris, does all of it.
“If there’s someone who does more than that, I want to know who they are.”
Patterson, 58, has proven to be more than just a ball coach during his TCU tenure. As stated, he’s kept himself busy away from the field.
Patterson has been posting pictures to his social media accounts of an African safari he and his wife, Kelsey, went on last spring. He’s been known to play his guitar around town.
Patterson acknowledged he may not be as interesting as Mike Leach, the former Texas Tech coach now at Washington State who loves pirates, grizzly bears and dishing out wedding advice.
And Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy may give Patterson a run for his money within the Big 12. Gundy brought back the mullet last season, hunts rattlesnakes and bales about 490 bales of hay on his 110-acre ranch each year.
But there’s no question Patterson is one of the more interesting coaches in the game. This is a guy who has taken just four full weekends off in the last year. Four.
Oh, and Patterson has plenty of sayings. It may not be on the Leach level of diatribes such as his take on the playoff committee, or gone viral like Gundy’s “I’m a man. I’m 40” rant.
But Patterson taught yours truly about what he calls “Shark Rules” over the weekend when he didn’t want to weigh in on a potentially controversial subject.
“Never jump into the water to a wounded swimmer where the sharks turn on you,” Patterson said. “I’m going to stay on the boat, eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
In other words, don’t do something that’s unnecessary. Or, as another well-known football figure would say, don’t go “circumcising the mosquito.”