How odd jobs led assistant football coach Paul Gonzales to become a rising star at TCU
The route was so circuitous that even one of his top-notch defensive backs would have had a hard time tracking it.
But we’re not actually talking about the coverage of one of Paul Gonzales’ stellar TCU safeties. We’re talking about the assistant coach’s path to, and rise on, TCU’s sideline.
Gonzales, 34, is a former college baseball player who once worked overnight shifts at FedEx and as a bouncer before getting his first break by taking a low-paying job with a D-3 startup program some 550 miles away from home. He even lived with his coach’s family for a few months.
These days, Gonzales is on the rise.
TCU coach Gary Patterson made one staff change on the defensive side of the ball this off-season, promoting Gonzales, the safeties coach to defensive passing game coordinator.
“He’s done a terrific job at his young age,” Patterson said. “Paul’s earned that right because of his experience and the job he’s done.”
That internal promotion served as another sign of how much Gonzales has established himself as a rising star in the coaching industry since joining TCU as a graduate assistant in 2012.
He’s worked his way from GA to cornerbacks coach to safeties coach to now passing game coordinator/safeties coach with the Horned Frogs. His position group has excelled of late.
Pro Football Focus ranked Trevon Moehrig and Ar’Darius Washington as the nation’s top two safeties in 2019, and TCU’s pass defense ranked as the best in the Big 12. They were the only secondary in the league to allow fewer than 200 yards passing.
It’s no surprise that Gonzales was part of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) prestigious “35 Under 35” last month in Nashville when Patterson became the association’s president.
“It was a really stellar group of dudes that I was in there with and a lot of bright upcoming coaches,” said Gonzales, who joked that, at 34, he had just made the cut.
“Being part of that was a realization that I’m at a top-tier program and still young in the game. I still have a lot to learn, but it was good getting around those guys and networking and getting a peak behind how you advance.”
Getting that recognition and invited to that select group wasn’t easy for Gonzales, though. It didn’t happen by accident.
Coaching roots
Coaching defensive backs wasn’t in Gonzales’ plans a dozen years ago. He was a quarterback in high school and then played baseball in college at UC Davis.
But Gonzales always knew he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, Paul Sr., as a football coach. His father was a longtime high school football coach in the Bay Area.
Gonzales started his football coaching career as an offensive assistant at Pioneer High School in Woodland, Calif., but he wanted to at least give the college route a try.
That’s when he had an opportunity to switch to the defensive side of the ball. His alma mater, UC Davis, needed a volunteer coach to help the defense, and Gonzales jumped at the opportunity to work under head coach Bob Biggs and defensive coordinator Lou Bronzan in 2008-09.
“They didn’t have anything on offense and asked if I’d be interested in defense,” Gonzales said. “I said, ‘Yes.’ I got into the defensive side and I haven’t been back over. I played baseball, I didn’t play DB in college, but I’ve had a chance to be around some really bright guys and good teachers.”
Still, being a volunteer defensive assistant is far from glamorous. To make ends meet during those years, Gonzales picked up whatever side job came his way.
“I worked nights at FedEx, stacking boxes,” Gonzales said, laughing. “Anything I could find. I worked at a couple bars as a bouncer, substitute teaching. It was a good experience. But coaching for me isn’t a job. It’s a passion. That’s why you get in it.”
At UC Davis, Gonzales and then-recruiting coordinator Keith Buckley developed a friendship. When Buckley went to Division III Pacific University in Oregon to start its football program that had been dormant for 20 years, he brought Gonzales with him as defensive backs coach.
“The thing that really stood out was just how invested he was in getting better and learning and growing,” said Buckley, who is now the athletic director at Pacific.
“If you’re a new coach at a D-1 school, maybe you can sit in the back row and sit down and shut up. But, at a D-3 school, everybody has to wear a lot of hats.”
For Gonzales, that meant working as the equipment manager too. Not only did it give Gonzales a full-time position, it also relieved Buckley of dealing with uniform matters.
“He’s a true sneakerhead, man. He had more shoes than I’ve ever seen before. More than my wife, for sure,” Buckley said of Gonzales, who lived with the coach’s family for a few months. “But, since we were just starting the program, Paul was great in helping build the uniforms and designing workout shirts and shorts. He certainly had more style than I did in picking that stuff.”
More importantly, Gonzales showed promise as a young up-and-coming coach.
Pacific went 0-9 in 2010 when it revived its football program, but the players clearly bought in. They played their closest game in the regular-season finale, a 44-42 loss to Menlo. The Boxers then went 1-8 in 2011, Gonzales’ last season with the program.
“We were just starting a program, so we had 110 freshmen that first year. There was no leadership, no developed talent,” Buckley said. “If you want to see if someone can really coach, go lose every game by a whole bunch of points that first year and see what happens.”
Gonzales continued to climb up the coaching ranks. Or at least he tried. He believes six or seven programs turned him down before he landed a graduate assistant spot at TCU in 2012.
Gonzales made his first favorable impression on Patterson when he ran a defensive backs drill at a camp.
“It was a grind those first few years,” Gonzales said. “But going up to Oregon was one of the best moves I ever made. It really jump-started my career. I interviewed for six or seven GA jobs, had multiple final interviews, before I luckily landed at TCU.”
Gonzales has made the most of that opportunity. He was promoted to a full-time job on Patterson’s staff after three years as a GA and has helped produce one of the top secondaries in the country.
Outside of his work on the field, Gonzales has proven to be an ace recruiter too. He helped land high-end prospects such as 2020 signee and four-star prospect Bud Clark.
At the end of the day, this is a position and industry that Gonzales doesn’t take for granted.
“I kind of had the luxury of understanding how rare these opportunities are,” Gonzales said. “I interviewed for so many and got passed on by so many. When I finally got a chance as a GA, I used that as a, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity for a two- or three-year interview.’
“Then over the course of that tenure I continue to hone my craft as a coach. Even if I wasn’t able to stay at TCU, it would help prepare me for the next opportunity. It’s all worked out.”
TCU days
In announcing Gonzales’ promotion to passing game coordinator, Patterson mentioned how the players have gravitated toward Gonzales over the years.
Safety Vernon Scott, a senior on the 2019 team, always felt Gonzales had his back regardless of circumstances.
“He understands what players are going through, being a college athlete himself,” Scott said. “He was always someone players could relate to.”
And someone who got the best out of his players.
TCU’s secondary has been one of the best in the country over the years, and Gonzales has simply helped keep that trend going. Scott sees nothing but promise next season, too, with the returns of Moehrig and Washington, along with other promising safeties such as La’Kendrick Van Zandt and Nook Bradford.
“I have no worries in the secondary next year,” Scott said. “They’re going to be great.”
For Gonzales, working on a daily basis with players such as Moehrig and Washington only serves as more motivation. He wants his players to play at the highest level possible.
And he’s never lost sight of working with one of the best defensive minds in Patterson.
“Hands down, one of the premier defensive coaches in the country,” Gonzales said. “The opportunity to work with him every day is priceless — how he prepares, how he makes adjustments.
“But, more than anything from a schematic standpoint, Gary is a really, really good motivator. I haven’t been around a guy who was that intense who pulled as much as he can pull out of players. That’s the No. 1 thing for me — that’s the type of intensity and tenacity and just discipline that I need to be able to pull out of my guys.
“At some point, if I ever get to be a defensive coordinator, I hope I can get the guys to play as hard for me as they play for us. Being able to replicate that is what makes us different.”
Given his track record, it’s hard to bet against Gonzales.
“Paul certainly embodies that non-traditional path, but he’s met all the requirements to be successful,” Buckley said. “If he was in the business world or a baseball coach, I believe he would’ve been successful.”
