***A few friends provided their thoughts on Gary Patterson, so it's all positive. These are coaches who know him well, although never worked for him.
By the time USC fans finish refreshing their timelines, one thing will be clear: Gary Patterson won't be a splash hire built for headlines. This will be a substance hire built for Saturdays.
So here’s what I’ll say about Patterson with the help of a few good friends of mine, and you can use it however you want.
USC will be getting an incredible play caller. And despite the outside perception, he hasn’t been away from the game. Yes, he hasn’t been a head coach the past couple of years, but let’s not rewrite history here — when he was at TCU, he wasn’t just the CEO type walking around with a headset. He was calling the plays. He was running the defense. This wasn’t a figurehead. This was the system.
And that matters.
Patterson is special in that regard because he understands how to build a plan and then adjust it on the fly. Matchups matter to him. Tendencies matter. Personnel matters. He’s not stubborn, and he’s not married to a scheme just because it looks good on a whiteboard. If something isn’t working, he fixes it. If an offense presents a new problem, he finds an answer. That’s not always the case in modern college football.
But the part that should really excite USC fans goes beyond play calling.
Gary Patterson is elite at identifying talent.
And not in the five-star, red-carpet, everyone-offered-this-kid way. At TCU, they weren’t landing their first option. Or their second. Or their third. Or their fourth. Or their fifth. They were getting guys way down their list — players other programs overlooked, ignored, or mis-evaluated.
And Patterson turned those guys into NFL players.
That’s not hyperbole. That’s his résumé.
TCU consistently developed NFL talent on the defensive line. At linebacker. In the secondary. They had former quarterbacks who became elite linebackers. Former wide receivers who turned into first-round corners or safeties. That doesn’t happen by accident. That happens because a coach knows what he’s looking at — body type, movement skills, instincts — and then knows how to develop it.
Patterson had multiple Thorpe Award winners in recent years. He was often the only coach offering certain kids — and those kids ended up as high draft picks.
Take Trevon Moehrig. First-rounder. Safety. Evaluated, developed, unleashed.
There was another kid, Jeff Gladney — a corner who tragically passed away — who was also a high draft pick. Patterson found him at a camp. He was a wide receiver. Nobody really knew who he was. Patterson did.
That’s the pattern.
Find the athlete. Teach him to play defense. Let speed and instincts take over.
And speaking of speed — that’s the non-negotiable.
Gary Patterson believes in speed. Speed and speed and speed. That is his number one metric. You have to be able to run.
On the back end, he’ll take a 5-foot-9 guy who can flat-out fly over a 6-foot-1 guy who can “kind of run.” Stars don’t impress him. Track times do. If you’re a five-star and you can’t run, he won’t take you. Period. End of discussion.
That philosophy shows up every Saturday.
Patterson’s secondaries are suffocating. Ask Boston College about it. Ask anybody who tried to throw on his defenses consistently. They were like gloves on receivers. It is hard to get open once he gets his guys on the back end. And Patterson often got the sixth, seventh or eighth guy on the TCU recruiting board, not a bunch of four and five-star guys. That's not trivial.
Routes get squeezed. Windows disappear. Quarterbacks hesitate. And hesitation gets punished.
Now put that mindset at USC.
Put that eye for talent in Southern California. Put that developmental ability in a program that can already recruit at a higher baseline than TCU ever could. Put that defensive adult in the room alongside elite offensive minds.
This isn’t about USC becoming TCU schematically. It’s about USC adding someone who knows how to fix problems, who knows how to build a defense from the ground up, and who knows how to identify players that fit rather than just players that look good on signing day.
They were developing guys up front. They were developing guys at linebacker. And when Patterson’s defenses are right, the back end becomes a nightmare.
That’s what USC is getting.
A coach who has done more with less for two decades. A coach who understands matchups, adjustments, and personnel at a high level. A coach who believes speed is king and development is queen.
The more I hear about Patterson, the more I love the hire.
Gary Patterson is that dude, in the opinion of many Power 4 conference coaches I've spoken to.
And if USC gives him the runway, and Patterson does what those who know him well expect him to, Trojan fans are going to remember what it feels like when defense actually dictates the game again.
