Texas AD Patterson to be fired today

[LA_Mustang]

I said barring a Big 12 Championship he is gone. I think going 11-1 would be a Big 12 Championship. Maybe he stays if he gets close. We'll see.

What does Smart have to do? Final Four? What would Mississippi do?

[lwjr]

Like mentioned above, Patterson pissed off everyone, even the faculty. Fired because he hired two black coaches is a stupid comment. Red McCombs made a complete [deleted] of himself when Strong was hired. Some of the power UT people out here can't stand Patterson because he is such an arrogant jerk and pisses you of by just talking to him. They don't care what color the coaches are as long as they win.

[untitled]

Man, Rebel you just won the prize for posting the stupidest thing on PF in history, which is saying a lot.

UT is obsessed with winning - period. If the coaches are purple and green they wouldn't care, as long as they are winning. You have no earthly idea what you are talking about, and just because that might be how they act in Mississippi that does not translate in the least in Austin. Quite the opposite.

Quoted for truth. This had nothing to do with Charlie Strong, and certainly had nothing to do with the color of Charlie Strong's skin. That's just ridiculous. Strong will be at UT at least through 2016, regardless of how they perform this year.

[leopold]

Didn't McCombs own the Vikings when Dennis Green was HC? McCombs isn't racist, he's a egomaniac who wanted to tell the AD who to hire, only Patterson went and hired who he thought was best for the job and didn't stroke the boosters egos. Frankly, I backed him for that and thought he did a fine job on his hires. Problem is there were too many chiefs and not enough indians in the room, and the AD ain't gonna last at UT if he can't find a way to get along with people.

[eric513]

Strong is not getting fired this year.
UT hired him to clean up a mess
He has dismantled much of the team for a total rebuild
6 Starting Freshman
23 Freshman (True and Redshirt) in 2 deep
A mess like that takes 3+ years to fix

Someone finally talking sense. Why would Strong get fired after 2 seasons in Austin? It takes time for Brown's old group to graduate and for Strong's recruiting classes to get on campus. This isn't the NFL where you can take over a franchise and go 2-14 to 11-5 in a year. If a coach is fired two years into his tenure, what does that tell the recruits? That the man they came for and recruited them can be gone before they even get to campus? I get that people expected more out of the Notre Dame game and that Shawn Watson wasn't cutting it, but the players are behind Strong and that's more than enough to let him coach out his contract.

[leopold]

I have it from a pretty reliable source that the final straw was when Joe Jamail, the lawyer who the field is named after, turned his suite back in to the school and said he was about to withdraw funding because of Patterson. THAT got the school's attention.

[Digetydog]

The face of a college athletic program is the football coach and sometimes the basketball boach. Patterson hired a black football coach and a black basketball coach. That in and of itself probably made a lot of booster mad enough to fire him at a school like UT in the south. The new AD will probably fire both coaches at some point. Maybe Smart will get one year before they fire him but not much more.

The idea that there is some deep seated racism driving this move is shallow and sad. I suspect most UT fans would love to have Sumlin. Furthermore, the big money boosters who drive moves like this would hire anyone who could win - race doesn't matter.

[stc9]

If I was interviewing for that job, my first question would be "How much of the ridiculous amount of revenue generated by the athletic department does the athletic department get to keep?" Patterson might be reminiscent of another Patterson, but if some of money grubbing came from being financially strangled by the university then it makes sense (not excusing it). He didn't have the political capital that Dodds had.

That being said, from the articles I have read about him... The guy is just clueless. He refused to meet big donors, instead assigned a Deputy AD to maintain those relationships. To put this in perspective, I am willing to wager that Rick Hart not only knows where our biggest donors work and live, but also knows the fastest routes to get to those locations. There were other things, but for me that was the biggest example of stupid.

[Stallion]

actually the article I read said that not even the Head Coaches report directly to the AD but rather to a Deputy AD

[GiddyUp]

I have it from a pretty reliable source that the final straw was when Joe Jamail, the lawyer who the field is named after, turned his suite back in to the school and said he was about to withdraw funding because of Patterson. THAT got the school's attention.

Ding Ding, we have a winner

[blackoutpony]

What bar are you at right now rebel? I'll have an uber come get you and take you to rehab

[skyscraper]

Rebel just won most insane post of 2015 on PF.com.

[CalallenStang]

Who is the next UT coach? Herman, Gruden (who Red McCombs wants) or Morris?

The next UT coach lost to the Falcons last night

[ghost]

anyone remeber why or how he got the ad job? Seemed like all he had to do after DeLoss was to not ruffle any feathers and keep the money pouring in AND make good coaching hires. All they had to do was keep Mac as the head coach and get the two best coordinators in football and a special teams guru to take care of the coaching side. I think SMart may do well.

[DiamondM]

The face of a college athletic program is the football coach and sometimes the basketball boach. Patterson hired a black football coach and a black basketball coach. That in and of itself probably made a lot of booster mad enough to fire him The new AD will probably fire both coaches at some point. Maybe Smart will get one year before they fire him but not much more.

ehh..I think it has to do with a lot more than that. Patterson is obsessed with money.

Patterson has tried to keep the LHN $15M+ in the athletic dept and not spread it around to the University, despite agreeing to do so with the President...thus pi$$ing off the university

Raised ticket prices over 21% at football games with a losing team thus pi$$ing off the fans. That in itself is incredibly stupid.

Cut charter flights for several sports (including the basketball team) to closer schools like tech, ou, osu, etc thus pi$$ing off the athletes & coaches

Denied a request by Strong to raise salaries of a few quality control assistants who are making $24k/yr. The lowest in the Big 12.

Charged former football players from the 1964 team $25 each to stand on the field during their OWN 50th REUNION celebration.

So I think it's quite a bit more than racism...he has royally pi$$ed off the school, boosters, and the fans. The guy is a complete idiot.

In other words, he tried to treat a college athletic department like a business where you drastically slash costs, hike prices, and squeeze every nickel out of your customers in order to make the bottom line look good for investors without actually improving your product (and taking away things that make your product fun -- even if that fun isn't functional or a good ROI). The problem is, in college athletics, your investors ARE your consumers, and just making it into a dollars and cents game doesn't work.