With a once proud football program floundering, University of Texas administrators decided to act.
The school fired athletic director Steve Patterson on Tuesday after having been named to the position just 22 months ago. University president Gregory Fenves made the decision which was reported by numerous outlets late in the morning. Patterson was the successor to DeLoss Dodds who had served as Texas athletic director for 33 years before retiring in 2013.
BREAKING: AP source says Texas athletic director Steve Patterson has been fired
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) September 15, 2015
The move comes amid growing concern from fans and boosters alike over the current state and direction of the Longhorn football program. They went 6-7 in Charlie Strong’s first season as head coach in 2014, but the year ended on a sour note after a season-ending 48-10 blowout to TCU followed by a poor performance in the Texas Bowl against Arkansas where they fell 31-7.
Things didn’t get much better as Strong entered year two. Texas traveled to South Bend, faced Notre Dame in the season opener and were soundly thrashed by a 38-3 scoreline. After week one’s action, the Longhorns found themselves dead last among FBS schools in total offense.
Last Saturday’s 42-28 win over Rice in the team’s first game of the season in Austin did little to silence the growing calls for change. Strong did a little bit of reshuffling himself in the lead up to the game, taking play-calling duties away from assistant head coach Shawn Watson and handing them to wide receivers coach Jay Norvell. He also benched incumbent quarterback Tyrone Swoopes in favor of redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard.
Strong was one of two prominent hires Patterson made during his tenure, the other being Shaka Smart who was brought in to lead the basketball program after another long-time head coach, Rick Barnes, was fired following the 2014-15 season. Smart is well-known for leading relatively unheralded Virginia Commonwealth to the Final Four in 2011.
According to reports from the Austin-American Statesman, Mike Perrin will be named interim athletic director until the school hires a permanent replacement. Perrin played linebacker and defensive end for the Longhorns during the 1960s and is currently an attorney in the Houston area.
Much of the talk going forward will probably center around whether Mack Brown, Strong’s predecessor who coached the Horns from 1998-2013, has any interest in the position or is even a target altogether.
According to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, other candidates for the job are anticipated to be current Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, NCAA executive vice president Oliver Luck and Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich.
UT candidates: Bob Bowlsby, Tom Jurich, Oliver Luck & Mack Brown, but Brown said he hasn’t talked w/anyone about job http://t.co/FCcBMNu9EW
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 15, 2015
Whoever is eventually named athletic director will be tasked with reviving a college football blue blood who at the present time has fallen behind Texas A&M and even smaller programs like TCU and Baylor in terms of success within a state mad about the sport. Whether or not Strong is part of those future plans remains to be seen.
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