TCU great Gary Patterson was introduced as the new defensive coordinator at USC after three years away from the sport.
As Gary Patterson began a new chapter of his coaching career, he spent part of the time remembering the journey that got him to where he is.
Patterson, the former TCU head football coach and program record-holder for wins, was formally introduced as the new defensive coordinator at USC under head coach Lincoln Riley on Thursday.
At the press conference, the coach opened up about his time in Fort Worth leading the Horned Frogs and why he thought the time was right to return to coaching. Since he and TCU mutually parted ways in 2021, Patterson had only held part-time consultant jobs at various college programs.
“I spent three years out because I had a goal," Patterson said. "After you got done, you had to be three years out to qualify for the College Hall of Fame. We hit all the other check marks, so that was one of the reasons why I’ve kind of been out of the game, consulted, did things.”
That goal was achieved when Patterson got the call that he had been elected into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this month.
Now he's onto a new challenge. But before elaborating on why he joined forces with former Oklahoma coach, Patterson was humble about how his tenure at TCU ended at the time that it did.
“One of the reasons I stayed at TCU as long as I did, I saw so many kids that didn’t have parents, or one parent, and they had nobody to turn to,” Patterson said.
“And after moving 10, you know, nine or 10 times the first 15 years of getting somewhere where I could stay. People say, ‘Why did you stay at TCU?’ Because those kinds of reasons. Because kids that you knew you coached forever, we’re going to have an opportunity to call back if there was a problem, so somebody would help them.”
And help them he did. Patterson built his legacies not just off of his relationships, but off of his successes on the field.
The Horned Frogs finished in the year-end AP Top-25 11 times under Patterson, went 11-6 in bowl games, and achieved three major BCS-game appearances (2009 Fiesta Bowl, 2010 Rose Bowl, 2014 Peach Bowl). His record in 22 seasons at TCU was 181-79 (.696).
Riley recognized the test the Trojans' 2026 schedule presents and knew he needed to find someone experienced to run his defense. He referenced Patterson as someone who is "the best in the business" because of TCU's "unprecedented success" in Fort Worth.
“I looked at it and saw that we had to play Washington, Oregon and Ohio State at home, and we had to go to Indiana, and we had to go to Penn State,” Riley said.
“Now you’re talking about a guy that was out for three years. So I’ve been watching all this football, and have an opportunity to say, 'OK, l can be a part of a place like USC, and understand when I step on the field that we’re going to have as good players as they do.'"
At a major Big Ten power like USC, the financial resources are plentiful, and the current landscape of college athletics looks much more different than it did even in Patterson's last year coaching.
But he's not worried about any of that.
"My job is defense," Patterson said. "I don’t deal with NIL. I don’t deal with all those different things. One of the misconceptions, I raised almost a million dollars at TCU before the year that I stepped away. I made a statement about what they said. I said I didn’t like it. It’s not what I said. I said I didn’t think it was going to be good for college football."
Regardless of how the future of the sport evolves, Riley is focused on Patterson's time off rejuvenating him enough to lead the Trojans to great heights this season.
The head coach leans on the success he witnessed first hand as an old Big 12 rival.
“The job he did in the program at TCU, the sustained success, unprecedented success at that school, speaks for itself,” Riley said. “He wasn’t going to jump back into this for anything. It had to be the right opportunity, the right kind of place, the right kind of setting, and I know he believes that he’s found that, and we certainly feel the same way about him.”