MANHATTAN, Kan.—When Kansas State athletic director Bob Krause announced coach Ron Prince would not be back next season, the immediate focus shifted to Texas Christian’s Gary Patterson.
It made sense. Patterson is a Kansas native, played at Kansas State as a walk-on, got his first coaching job in Manhattan under Jim Dickey in 1982.
It seemed so logical that the only surprise from an Internet report that Patterson had been hired at Kansas State was that it happened so quickly, just two days after Prince was fired on Nov. 5.
The problem was that the report was false—and Patterson didn’t like it.
The Horned Frogs coach immediately denied that he had taken the job and ranted about the false report during his radio show later that day.
Even now, nearly two weeks after the report came out, Patterson is still bothered that he was linked to another job just hours after his team had been knocked out of BCS contention by a loss to Utah.
“I just had 65 guys fight their hearts out for a dream to get to a BCS game and they lost it,” Patterson said this week during the Mountain West coaches teleconference.
“The first thing they did when they woke up after getting home at about 4 in the morning was to find out the guy they fought for had taken another job. It was very disappointing to me that that happened because there were a lot of people that had put a lot of time and effort into this season.”
So does that mean Patterson is out of the running for the K-State job? Not necessarily. It just means he’s not going to talk about it right now.
Neither is Krause.
At the time of Prince’s firing, Kansas State’s athletic director said he hoped to have a coach in place before the end of the season. The Wildcats finish up Saturday against Iowa State, so it doesn’t look like that will happen.
Kansas State sports information director Kenny Lannou says Krause isn’t going to comment until after a coach has been hired.
So if Patterson doesn’t end up being the man, who might?
Oklahoma associate head coach Brent Venables would have to be considered a strong candidate after playing at Kansas State and spending six years there on Bill Snyder’s staff.
Dennis Franchione is also a possibility. The former Texas A&M coach is from Girard, Kan., attended Pittsburg State in the southeast part of the state and has reportedly expressed interest in the job.
The most intriguing candidate might already be on campus.
Snyder has his name on the stadium and hasn’t coached since 2005, but could make the transition to a new coach easier if he were persuaded to come back to the sideline for a year or two.
Whoever ends up in the Little Apple will face some difficult challenges.
The Wildcats have struggled in the difficult Big 12 over the past few seasons, closing last year with a four-game losing streak and entering Saturday’s finale on a five-game skid. The offense has been decent, thanks in part to quarterback Josh Freeman, but the defense has been among the worst in the nation each of the past two seasons.
Manhattan also is a unique setting, a small college town in an isolated area roughly an hour from Topeka, two hours from Kansas City.
“It is not a big-city campus. You have to have a feel of the people,” Kansas State tight end Brett Alstatt said. “I think we have to have somebody that just connects the Kansas life and the blue-collar people around here.”
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INTERESTED BYSTANDER:@ Texas’ only path to the Big 12 championship game requires Texas Tech to lose to Oklahoma this week, but Longhorns coach Mack Brown says he knows better than to pull for his archrival.
“I remember I pulled really, really hard the time they were playing Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game (in 2003). I sat there and I was all pumped up because we were going to the Fiesta Bowl as soon as they won, and Kansas State beat them 35-7,” Brown said. “I realized that night that me being a fan of either team doesn’t really matter.”
Texas is immediately behind Texas Tech at third in the BCS standings, and Brown noted that the Red Raiders still have another game after facing Oklahoma.
“There’s so many different things that can happen over the next three weeks that I will simply sit back and watch and be a fan of the game,” Brown said.
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PAWELEK’S PICKS:@ Baylor linebacker Joe Pawelek intercepted a pass in the end zone for the third time this season on Saturday in the Bears’ 41-21 win against Texas A&M.
With his two picks against the Aggies, Pawelek now has six interceptions this season, the most of any linebacker in major college football and the most by a Bears players since Michael McFarland had six in 1991.
All that added up to help Pawelek be named the Big 12 defensive player of the week.
“He’s just smart. He understands, he anticipates and he pays attention. Those are all pretty good qualities to have as a middle linebacker,” Baylor coach Art Briles said. “He studies the game.”
Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz was the offensive player of the week after racking up 365 yards of total offense, including two touchdowns rushing and passing, in a 56-28 win against Kansas State. K-State’s Brandon Banks, who had a 98-yard kickoff return touchdown in the same game, was the special teams selection.
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AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
