He's on top of the world there in Fort Worth and has that program on the path of yearly, consistently repeatable success. He is a hero there and will be for as long as he wants to stay there. I think it would be a mistake for him to leave for any program, but sure as heck not for a lower tier SEC program such as MSU. Too many other coaches have left programs they helped to build only to fail at the bigger school and eventually end up far worse off in the long run. Just look at the "high talker" TCU coach who was there before Patterson. I am blanking on his name at the moment, but he went to Alabama, then left them high and dry to go to aTm where he crashed and burned. Franchione, that's his name. Anyway, even if the Ninja courted Patterson (as he should have and probably did), I doubt that coach was remotely interested in what we had to offer. The Ninja did exactly what he needed to do - he went for the best young assistant coach with a clue as to how to run an offense that he could get. It is just gravy that the choice he made also had a background in the SEC. Dan is the man. He won't stay with us long term though if he has the success I expect him to have. That's okay though. If he leaves in 3 to 5 years, he will leave the program in great shape, and if we still have a good athletic director as we do now, he will be able to bring in a great replacement. We can become not a beggar at that time but a chooser. We are so blessed that one Larry Templeton had no choice in Crxxm's replacement. New blood can and will lead us out of the wilderness.
The "C" in TCU definitley stands for Christian, but it is in no way a conservative Christian campus. I had a good friend in the army who is a practicing Jew, and he went to TCU. The school is heavy into the greek scene and borderline liberal. Good school, expensive school, in a great location, but much closer to SMU than say Baylor in atmosphere. I think they prefer good students with deep pocketbooks of any and all religious leanings.