DizzG Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 hopefully this is ok to post as not staff content. Its from Nuufaola on OB who is well connected, and always has some great postings. I dont know if he signed up here yet, and hopefully he doesnt mind if I share this as its too good for people to miss IMO...esp some already leaning towards this guy being a bad hire. First, my bone fides. I have met Patterson in the last couple of months. I talked to him about the coaching search. I found out that he was closer to Sexton than Saban, whereas the opposite was originally reported. I spoke to one of the people that selected Patterson at UT. And I spoke to somebody at the Houston Rockets, who I went to dinner with for 3 hours and got all the dirt. And I spoke to somebody at the NBA. Everyone I spoke to was very very senior in the organizations. I have done my background work, and I would put it on par with the reporters at Orangebloods. Second, a little background on Patterson's history. Patterson is a lawyer and a sports professional. He has been an AD before. He ran the Portland Trailblazers. At Portland, Paul Allen had thrown money at the team, but little else. He had his buddies working there. Vulcan had their buddies working there. The team was losing games and losing 100mm. Patterson went in and starting firing and trading, etc. He got that team back to where it needed to be financially. When you do something like that in a communist town like Portland, you are going to make a ton of enemies. The Pacific Northwest is more similar to Denmark than it is to Texas in terms of right-to-work socialism, so the idea of firing a bunch of people is like mass murder up there. But, I will tell you this, a lot of what Patterson did had David Stern and Paul Allen's blessing and they really appreciated what he did. But when you do all that, you make enemies in a small town, and he needed to leave. Patterson's job is not to draft basketball players at UT. The media complaints about patterson in terms of cutting and trading and drafting appear to be mixed...I am not sure as I am not a NBA-guru, but I bet that all of his moves were not perfect(he probably made mistakes). But as an AD, we don't need our AD to be drafting and cutting players. The AD has his coaches do that for him in the college context of recruiting. The AD's job is to hire these coaches. Third, this notion that Patterson is going to settle for some crummy coach. I just don't know where this is coming from. He wants to be done by Jan 15th. Today is Jan 2nd. He has 13 days, and some of the major players are still in prep for bowl games. And these same major players had Christmas just like you did. For those of you that have forgotten, Christmas is when these 50 year old guys see their kids who they haven't seen all year b/c their kids are off at college or are 20 somethings. These coaches don't have time to take a piss in the Fall and need to take a little time off (just think that they don't have time to do things like post on OBs about beans in chili b/c they are too busy working past midnight every night). I bet Patterson is trying to move and has a family too..... Patterson is well aware that this coaching hire will really define his career. He was making 500k and now makes 1.5mm. Who in their right mind thinks that Patterson wants to screw this up? Why would he settle? What is the incentive to settle for a second tier coach? First it was a Charlie Strong fetish, and now its an Art Briles fetish. Which is it? Or is it that he is interviewing coaches when they are done with their bowl games? Isn't that logical? Fourth, this other weird notion that Patterson is going to completely ignore the committee There is one complaint that the committee has not met yet. The reason is that the damn committee is off skiing and sunbathing and doing stuff like that. I understand that the committee members do things between christmas and new years. The other thing is that the committee members talk on the phone. All the time. At least the important ones, as some committee members are not all created equal...some are more important and knowledgeable than others. Patterson will get what he needs from the committee. Now that its created, he will need to get committee buy in. Last, there is a final notion that Patterson is going to ignore the important BMDs. Like it or not, at this very moment, Rowling and Hicks and Stillwell are the drivers of this bus. Powers will be gone in a year or two, and Rowling and Hicks are going to be around and if they don't like Patterson, then Steve Patterson will be gone. There is going to be some kind of consensus or compromise between these guys. I bet you that they are in constant contact. It would just be insane for Patterson to go rouge here. Going back to Portland for a moment, note that Paul Allen used Patterson to fire Paul's friends to say that it was out of Paul's hands. So, sometimes you are going to need to see a little deception here...and Patterson knows who the bag man is. If this dallas power group and patterson settle on somebody, then patterson will have all the air cover he needs (and it would potentially take an entirely new group from say Houston to change coaches again, as the last group will not be trusted). So, the dallas power group and patterson all have a real reason to get this right. We are counting on them. I was hoping that I wasn't going to have to spell it all out, but half of this board has gone crazy calling Patterson weak or stupid or lazy or corrupt or spineless. I think he is a smart and tough guy that will make the tough decisions. Dodds was a backslapper and yuck yucker who did a ton of great things, but always needed to be pushed by the BMDs to make the hard decisions (or he never made them). Patterson is not like that. He is a change agent and we need change. Change is painful and ugly and scary....and requires you to make decisions where you don't know what will happen. You can only do your homework and execute and then hope for the best. That is patterson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lukus Alderman Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 That's an excellent post by nuufaola. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornEsch Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 nuufaola has always been one of my favorite posters. That was an excellent post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzG Posted January 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 yep. I wish he posted here. He's obviously highly connected and pretty high up the food chain. He's had some truly inside tidbits in the past you only get from direct conversations with the most powerful people around UT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragworm Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 "Rowling and Hicks and Stillwell are the drivers of this bus." - are they the BMDs who are still pushing for Saban? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzG Posted January 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Yes I believe so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongviewLobo01 Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 "Rowling and Hicks and Stillwell are the drivers of this bus." - are they the BMDs who are still pushing for Saban? Those were the BMDs who were behind the original meeting a year ago and wanted Saban so bad a couple of weeks ago. Remember, Hicks is also on the Board of Regents and is one of the guys keeping Powers in his job. So he has a TON of power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bevo11 Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Great stuff and much needed. Like Pepto Bismol right now! thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topstarr Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 "Rowling and Hicks and Stillwell are the drivers of this bus." - are they the BMDs who are still pushing for Saban? I believe they are the ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HookemHorns Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 I read that on OB. I really wish nuu was over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMagana Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Everyone knows theres a power struggle going on at Texas but its great to have a better idea of what's going on. Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betogonzalez Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Thanks DizzG for reposting this. Great insight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Boyles Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Interesting times are ahead... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Sounds like someone is not that happy. This seems consistent with what the quoted guy is saying. Billionaire UT donor Red McCombs: "They've got that search committee. I don't know who they're searching, except for each other." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornSolo Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Thanks for posting it over here away from the venom.....again, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoopy Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 I thought you quit orangebloods dizz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bfennell Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Great insight on Patterson! Thank you for sharing. I could be wrong but I haven't heard too much Patterson bashing in the HS forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzG Posted January 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 I thought you quit orangebloods dizz my sub has not run out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdhornesq Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Sounds like someone is not that happy.This seems consistent with what the quoted guy is saying. Looks like McCombs and Jamail are on the outside looking in. Well, when you prop up the drunk incompetent bus driver even after he's steered the bus into a ditch, you do lose all credibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimR Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 He is a great poster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornfanaustin Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Nuu is by far one of my favorite posters on the OB. His post was informative and timely given all off the knee jerk reactions on the coaching search as of late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orangeflow Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 He always comes accross with to the point articles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandit Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 This thread needs to be pinned to the top. I was never an OB guy so a lot of you I do not know. But I like being here and hope I don't overstay my welcome. In summary, what a great analysis of Patterson. I hope one of you can talk him into visiting us once in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monarch Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 ...concur, concur, concur, concur, concur, concur, concur, concur!... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epictetus Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Thanks for bringing that. As in "bringing it." Appreciate the language and tone of it, as well as the content. Is why I now only put the Wall Street Journal on my table and not the NY Times or (H forbid) the Statesman. Just really appreciate language, straight thinking and on-the-nose wisdom and savvy. You made my day, sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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