Patterson Grateful for Life’s Journey
Jun 26, 2026 | Football, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
On the corner of Lillian Avenue and Beacon Drive sits a yellow, two-story house in north St. Louis, Missouri. The area has seen a history of severe gun violence, including several high-profile homicides, and a 16-year-old was murdered last July while riding his bike nearby. Freddie and Rosie Patterson have resided in the house for more than 50 years, and they refuse the overtures of their youngest son, Cory Patterson, to relocate them to a safer location. Freddie is blind and Rosie had a stroke, but the place is home. Young men mow their yard and trim bushes.
"Murderville was a tough area, windows gated, all that stuff," Cory Patterson says. "You don't really notice it as a kid. People ask me all the time, 'What's your biggest fear?' I know what it's like to be poor, but I didn't know I was poor. But my biggest fear is, now knowing that I'm not poor, having to go back. That's why I work my butt off every day so my girls never have to see what that looks like."
He pauses.
"It was a different spot," he says, "but it made me who I am today."
Today, the 45-year-old Patterson, husband to Tiffany and father to 16-year-old Nyla and 10-year-old Nori, is the running backs coach at Kansas State. He lounges in a black swivel chair in a spacious office with a balcony that hangs off the edge of the Vanier Family Football Complex and peers across the football field that'll shake as a packed house witnesses the first game of the Collin Klein era in the season opener against Nicholls on September 5.
Today, Patterson is grateful — grateful that he began playing football at age 8 at Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club; grateful for his love of learning and that he could teach his mother to read and take care of the daily mail for the family; grateful that his father introduced him to the Cleveland NJROTC Academy, where he emerged as a star quarterback and received a single "C" during his high school career in micro-economics.
Today, Patterson, who has four older brothers, is grateful for something else as well.
"I'm the only boy in my family to never be shot," he says, "and I'm the only boy to never have been in the penitentiary."
Patterson is a 2002 finance graduate of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. His college football career was cut short by a pair of ACL injuries. Accountant was Patterson's first profession. He worked at A.G. Edwards, the prominent, St. Louis-based financial services and brokerage firm that now is known as Wells Fargo Advisors. But it was when Patterson exchanged his suit and tie for sweats and a hat each night at 6:00 p.m. that he truly was happy, as he coached a little league team for Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club. He taught the boys football. He taught them confidence. He taught them to dream.
"I had a little league team and people always asked, 'How do you get them to line up in formations at 8 years old?'" Patterson says. "I'd say, 'Because nobody told them they couldn't.' I totally believe that. If you don't teach people they can't do something, we can do anything. As adults, we usually tell young people, 'You can't do that.' If you don't bother them, they probably could do it. We've already got it into our head what can't be done because of the way we grew up or the situations we've been in, but I've never done that with people. I've never done that with young people. There are no problems, only solutions. Let's go get it done. Whatever it is."
Patterson found a solution to secure his happiness on the gridiron, so he took a teaching position at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis.
"Coaching was what I wanted to do," Patterson says. "I said, 'I'm ready to just go.' I went into the high school building and taught gym and health, and I had so much fun. It was more of what I wanted to do. It was way less money, but I was happy as can be.
"At that point of my life, I was thinking I'd be Darren Sunkett, the highly decorated head football coach at East St. Louis Senior High School in St. Louis. He won 11 state championships and was the only coach to win state titles on both sides of the water in East St. Louis and West St. Louis. I said, 'That's the goal. I'm going to win a lot of state championships. I'm going to light this thing up and get it rolling.'"
And he did.
After helping Christian Brothers College High School to a Missouri state championship and two district championships from 2009 to 2012, Patterson moved to Trinity Catholic as offensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014 before taking over as head coach from 2015 to 2017. Patterson led Trinity Catholic to a reputation as having one of the finest football programs in the state of Missouri, compiling a 27-6 record with a spot in the 2016 Missouri Class 2 state title game, and then a spot in the 2017 state semifinals. Patterson won conference coach of the year each of his three years at Trinity Catholic.
"I never knew that football was going to change my life until I met Lovie Smith," Patterson says. "I had Jameson Williams, who played for the Detroit Lions and Isaiah Williams, who played for the New York Jets. There were a bunch of dudes on that team. That group of dudes changed my life. Then one day, Thad Ward walked into my building and recruited a bunch of my guys. Everyone came over from Nick Saban to Lincoln Riley to Dan Lanning — Dan and I became really good friends — but nobody was like Thad with how he could relate to the guys in the building and the families. Thad just hung around, got to know everybody, spent time in the library, and the players got to know him."
At the time, Ward, who today is the K-State associate head coach and wide receivers coach under Klein, was running backs coach at Illinois under head coach Lovie Smith.
"Lovie came in and did a football camp at Trinity Catholic and one year later said to me, 'I need to talk to you,'" Patterson says. "I took him into my classroom, and he said that he was going to have an opening on his staff, and he needed somebody who could relate to players. He asked if I would be interested in joining the Illinois football program. To do that, I had to say goodbye to my babies, my players who I'd known since they were five and six years old. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was tell the players I was leaving. I stood in front of those dudes and cried and my nose bled, but those dudes were crazy happy for me, and some of them joined me at Illinois. I never asked for a college football job. My plan was completely different. I wanted to be the next Darren Sunkett and win all the high school state titles.
"This is all God's plan right here, and I'm just trying to walk on the footsteps that he provides."
As a recruiter, Patterson brought in two of the highest-rated signees in the modern era to play football at Illinois. On the football field, Patterson coached several very fine players during his time at Illinois, but Chase Brown was the best of them all. Brown was a finalist for the 2022 Doak Walker Award after averaging a nation-leading 136.9 rushing yards and amassing a nation-leading 10 games with at least 100 yards on the ground, and he went to the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Four years at Illinois turned into a two-year stint as associate head coach and wide receivers coach at Purdue in 2023 and 2024. It was during this time that Patterson, who had spent nearly two decades pouring into others, took time to pour into himself.
The month of October in 2023 is particularly significant.
"Moving from Illinois to Purdue, I learned a lot about myself," he says. "That's where I stopped drinking. I had to get my life into order. I was about to mess it up, and the good thing is that I could see I was going to mess it up. I've been sober for 2 ½ years now, starting in October 2023. It's a choice that I made, and I'm OK with that choice. I'm not afraid to talk about my sobriety and don't mind talking to my players about it.
"I know what I've been through, but the changes that I've made as a man to develop into who I am now, I'm just thanking God that it happened. It gives me a real testimony for my players."
Patterson took his talents to Oklahoma State last year for the final season of the Mike Gundy era, and he coached Rodney Fields Jr., who transferred to begin his sophomore season with Patterson at K-State.
"Finding my way to K-State?" Patterson says. "I never thought I'd be at K-State."
Things changed when Klein was hired as K-State head coach on December 4, 2025, after two ultra-successful seasons as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, which went 11-2 and advanced to the 2025 College Football Playoff.
"A bunch of guys told me about Coach Klein," Patterson says. "Holmon Wiggins, who was his receivers coach at Texas A&M, was one of the first guys to call me. He said, 'If you can work for Collin Klein, you need to work for him. Listen, he's one of the best dudes I've ever worked for in my life.' I had an idea that Thad was going to K-State, but he didn't tell me that he was going to K-State. But Thad knew whenever Collin Klein became a head coach that he was going with him."
Klein deemed that Patterson, with his work ethic, caring demeanor, proven ability as a recruiter, teacher and coach, and ability to relate to players, was a fit for the K-State family.
Klein immediately left an indelible impression upon Patterson as well.
"Collin Klein is one of the most competitive dudes I've ever been around," Patterson says. "You can feel it on the field. You feel it off him every day."
Klein guided a Texas A&M offense that was versatile and utilized several running backs. Last season, three ball carriers gained at least 400 rushing yards, six averaged at least 4.20 yards per carry, and four scored at least four touchdowns for an offense that ranked 19th in the FBS with 33.8 points per game and that reached at least 400 total yards in 10 games.
"Collin Klein is the best play-caller in the country," Patterson says. "I totally believe that. I'm a huge fan of his. He just does so many things. There are so many ways where he has guys lined up in different places, and he'll put them in good situations and good one-on-ones, and those guys have opportunities to make plays. I said this to Thad the other day, 'A lot of times, our head coach will put players into positions to win, where he makes an OK player — a dude who works hard and all those things — look like a really good player.' Those players will feel better than they are. And that's how you get guys to continue to go and win.
"You win with guys when they have confidence. A lot of that comes from the way he calls the offense."
K-State's top three running backs could be in for a treat in the fall.
Joe Jackson is a 6-foot, 207-pound native of Haines City, Florida, who Klein recruited to K-State in 2023, comes off a sophomore season in which he earned All-Big 12 Third Team honors, highlighted by his school-record 293 rushing yards at No. 12 Utah — second most rushing yards in a game by a FBS player in 2025 — that topped Hall of Famer Darren Sproles' school record by one single yard. Jackson's 12.9 yards per carry against Utah marked the highest by a K-State player in the history of the Big 12 Conference.
Patterson already knew about Jackson when he arrived at K-State on January 7 — "Joe is a dawg," Patterson said shortly after his four-hour drive to Manhattan — and Patterson has gotten know Jackson plenty more over the past six months.
"It's his leadership," Patterson says. "He's becoming a freaking leader every day. He's starting to take on the challenges. I'm not going to sugar-coat it. I press Joe and I press Joe every day because there's a lot in there. He was the gap-scheme king last year, and he couldn't run a zone to save his life. So, I'm all over him, and I'm a huge fan of Joe Jackson. I really think he's going to be a dude that is continuing to develop, but he's learning how to do it his way, not my way. I don't want him to have to do it my way. He's smart enough and good enough to go out there and play with some great confidence and put a few more tools in his toolbox and allow that kid go and play. He's very smart, and I just want to make him as confident as I can make him before he walks out there in August."
Jay Harris, a 6-foot-1, 215-pounder armed with a tank of a body, is a former Division II First Team All-America running back from Northwest Missouri State and a senior transfer who shined for Oregon in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Peach Bowl. All Harris wanted was a chance after playing just 103 snaps over the course of 11 games in 2025. He'll get many opportunities with the Wildcats.
"Jay runs like a 5-foot-10 dude, but he's 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, and he is a freak show with his build and body, and you rarely see a guy that big be that explosive," Patterson says. "He's very explosive when he catches the ball like a receiver. I'm going to continue to press him. Jay definitely has an opportunity to be something that this league hasn't seen a ton of — a big, physical back who can run. There haven't been a ton of those guys in this league."
Rodney Fields Jr. prepares for his sophomore year at K-State after putting on a show despite limited action his freshman campaign at Oklahoma State. The 5-foot-9, 193-pound Fields rushed for 614 yards and one touchdown and added 28 catches for 276 yards. His 614 rushing yards were sixth among Power 4 freshmen and included a 163-yard effort against Cincinnati, which was the fifth most rushing yards by a freshman in Oklahoma State history. His 276 receiving yards were third among Power 4 freshmen running backs. He ranked sixth in the Big 12 with 98.89 all-purpose yards per game.
"Rodney has that chip on his shoulder there, but he freaking wants to do it right, and he's going to work his tail off," Patterson says. "He is one of those dudes that every opportunity he gets, he's going to play like it's his last one. He's the young guy of the three, and he's here to push those older guys every day. He's learning from Joe and picking up stuff, and when he gets onto the field, he has the chance to do something really special. I didn't play him too much last year at Oklahoma State, but when he was in the game, he made an impact.
"Skill wise, this kid can make you miss in a phone booth. He has the trait of not being hit head-on. It's going to be hard to tackle that guy. Him being a short guy – he's not small, he's short – and it's hard to get a clean shot on him. You rarely see anybody line him up. He has elite quickness in small spaces. He'll be good for us."
A warmness fills Patterson's office as sunlight pours into Bill Snyder Family Stadium and through his wall-sized windows, causing the purple long-sleeve t-shirt with white script "CATS" lettering to glow.
"This place gives me the feeling of, 'We can really get this place going,'" Patterson says. "There are some real dudes in the building and some real competition, and nobody wants to be the weakest link on the football field and in recruiting. Nobody wants to be the weakest link, and that's being created by our head coach."
Patterson gazes at the football field. The season opener against Nicholls on September 5 will quickly be here along with the sellout crowd eager to see the first game of the Klein era — which will also be Patterson's first game in Bill Snyder Family Stadium as well.
"When we run out of that tunnel, it's going to be a special moment here," Patterson says. "I'm telling you, it feels good being here. On social media, you see the little hashtag I use, '#LTSU.' It means, 'Light that s--- up!' That's the feeling I'm going to have coming out of that tunnel on September 5."
Every day is a chance to grow, to enter a new phase, and to build — both as a player, a coach and as a person — and Patterson reflects on his journey to this spot, sitting in this pristine office and on the ground floor of what could be a special ride for many years.
"I've learned so much, especially over these past four or five years, and I've developed so much as a man," Patterson says. "I know what I've been through, but the changes that I've made as a man to develop into who I am now, I'm just thanking God that it happened. It gives me a real testimony for my players. I've been through some stuff. I'm the only boy in my family to never be shot and the only boy to never been in the penitentiary. I've seen some stuff that I won't even talk about during that time growing up where I grew up, and all those situations taught me and created who I am today.
"As I continue to learn and grow now, I just feel like this phase of my life is the phase where I have even more to give back now."
He pauses and grins.
"And that," he says, "is what I'm more excited about than anything."
On the corner of Lillian Avenue and Beacon Drive sits a yellow, two-story house in north St. Louis, Missouri. The area has seen a history of severe gun violence, including several high-profile homicides, and a 16-year-old was murdered last July while riding his bike nearby. Freddie and Rosie Patterson have resided in the house for more than 50 years, and they refuse the overtures of their youngest son, Cory Patterson, to relocate them to a safer location. Freddie is blind and Rosie had a stroke, but the place is home. Young men mow their yard and trim bushes.
"Murderville was a tough area, windows gated, all that stuff," Cory Patterson says. "You don't really notice it as a kid. People ask me all the time, 'What's your biggest fear?' I know what it's like to be poor, but I didn't know I was poor. But my biggest fear is, now knowing that I'm not poor, having to go back. That's why I work my butt off every day so my girls never have to see what that looks like."
He pauses.
"It was a different spot," he says, "but it made me who I am today."
Today, the 45-year-old Patterson, husband to Tiffany and father to 16-year-old Nyla and 10-year-old Nori, is the running backs coach at Kansas State. He lounges in a black swivel chair in a spacious office with a balcony that hangs off the edge of the Vanier Family Football Complex and peers across the football field that'll shake as a packed house witnesses the first game of the Collin Klein era in the season opener against Nicholls on September 5.
Today, Patterson is grateful — grateful that he began playing football at age 8 at Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club; grateful for his love of learning and that he could teach his mother to read and take care of the daily mail for the family; grateful that his father introduced him to the Cleveland NJROTC Academy, where he emerged as a star quarterback and received a single "C" during his high school career in micro-economics.
Today, Patterson, who has four older brothers, is grateful for something else as well.
"I'm the only boy in my family to never be shot," he says, "and I'm the only boy to never have been in the penitentiary."
Patterson is a 2002 finance graduate of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. His college football career was cut short by a pair of ACL injuries. Accountant was Patterson's first profession. He worked at A.G. Edwards, the prominent, St. Louis-based financial services and brokerage firm that now is known as Wells Fargo Advisors. But it was when Patterson exchanged his suit and tie for sweats and a hat each night at 6:00 p.m. that he truly was happy, as he coached a little league team for Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club. He taught the boys football. He taught them confidence. He taught them to dream.
"I had a little league team and people always asked, 'How do you get them to line up in formations at 8 years old?'" Patterson says. "I'd say, 'Because nobody told them they couldn't.' I totally believe that. If you don't teach people they can't do something, we can do anything. As adults, we usually tell young people, 'You can't do that.' If you don't bother them, they probably could do it. We've already got it into our head what can't be done because of the way we grew up or the situations we've been in, but I've never done that with people. I've never done that with young people. There are no problems, only solutions. Let's go get it done. Whatever it is."
Patterson found a solution to secure his happiness on the gridiron, so he took a teaching position at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis.
"Coaching was what I wanted to do," Patterson says. "I said, 'I'm ready to just go.' I went into the high school building and taught gym and health, and I had so much fun. It was more of what I wanted to do. It was way less money, but I was happy as can be.
"At that point of my life, I was thinking I'd be Darren Sunkett, the highly decorated head football coach at East St. Louis Senior High School in St. Louis. He won 11 state championships and was the only coach to win state titles on both sides of the water in East St. Louis and West St. Louis. I said, 'That's the goal. I'm going to win a lot of state championships. I'm going to light this thing up and get it rolling.'"
And he did.
After helping Christian Brothers College High School to a Missouri state championship and two district championships from 2009 to 2012, Patterson moved to Trinity Catholic as offensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014 before taking over as head coach from 2015 to 2017. Patterson led Trinity Catholic to a reputation as having one of the finest football programs in the state of Missouri, compiling a 27-6 record with a spot in the 2016 Missouri Class 2 state title game, and then a spot in the 2017 state semifinals. Patterson won conference coach of the year each of his three years at Trinity Catholic.
"I never knew that football was going to change my life until I met Lovie Smith," Patterson says. "I had Jameson Williams, who played for the Detroit Lions and Isaiah Williams, who played for the New York Jets. There were a bunch of dudes on that team. That group of dudes changed my life. Then one day, Thad Ward walked into my building and recruited a bunch of my guys. Everyone came over from Nick Saban to Lincoln Riley to Dan Lanning — Dan and I became really good friends — but nobody was like Thad with how he could relate to the guys in the building and the families. Thad just hung around, got to know everybody, spent time in the library, and the players got to know him."
At the time, Ward, who today is the K-State associate head coach and wide receivers coach under Klein, was running backs coach at Illinois under head coach Lovie Smith.
"Lovie came in and did a football camp at Trinity Catholic and one year later said to me, 'I need to talk to you,'" Patterson says. "I took him into my classroom, and he said that he was going to have an opening on his staff, and he needed somebody who could relate to players. He asked if I would be interested in joining the Illinois football program. To do that, I had to say goodbye to my babies, my players who I'd known since they were five and six years old. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was tell the players I was leaving. I stood in front of those dudes and cried and my nose bled, but those dudes were crazy happy for me, and some of them joined me at Illinois. I never asked for a college football job. My plan was completely different. I wanted to be the next Darren Sunkett and win all the high school state titles.
"This is all God's plan right here, and I'm just trying to walk on the footsteps that he provides."
As a recruiter, Patterson brought in two of the highest-rated signees in the modern era to play football at Illinois. On the football field, Patterson coached several very fine players during his time at Illinois, but Chase Brown was the best of them all. Brown was a finalist for the 2022 Doak Walker Award after averaging a nation-leading 136.9 rushing yards and amassing a nation-leading 10 games with at least 100 yards on the ground, and he went to the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Four years at Illinois turned into a two-year stint as associate head coach and wide receivers coach at Purdue in 2023 and 2024. It was during this time that Patterson, who had spent nearly two decades pouring into others, took time to pour into himself.
The month of October in 2023 is particularly significant.
"Moving from Illinois to Purdue, I learned a lot about myself," he says. "That's where I stopped drinking. I had to get my life into order. I was about to mess it up, and the good thing is that I could see I was going to mess it up. I've been sober for 2 ½ years now, starting in October 2023. It's a choice that I made, and I'm OK with that choice. I'm not afraid to talk about my sobriety and don't mind talking to my players about it.
"I know what I've been through, but the changes that I've made as a man to develop into who I am now, I'm just thanking God that it happened. It gives me a real testimony for my players."
Patterson took his talents to Oklahoma State last year for the final season of the Mike Gundy era, and he coached Rodney Fields Jr., who transferred to begin his sophomore season with Patterson at K-State.
"Finding my way to K-State?" Patterson says. "I never thought I'd be at K-State."
Things changed when Klein was hired as K-State head coach on December 4, 2025, after two ultra-successful seasons as offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, which went 11-2 and advanced to the 2025 College Football Playoff.
"A bunch of guys told me about Coach Klein," Patterson says. "Holmon Wiggins, who was his receivers coach at Texas A&M, was one of the first guys to call me. He said, 'If you can work for Collin Klein, you need to work for him. Listen, he's one of the best dudes I've ever worked for in my life.' I had an idea that Thad was going to K-State, but he didn't tell me that he was going to K-State. But Thad knew whenever Collin Klein became a head coach that he was going with him."
Klein deemed that Patterson, with his work ethic, caring demeanor, proven ability as a recruiter, teacher and coach, and ability to relate to players, was a fit for the K-State family.
Klein immediately left an indelible impression upon Patterson as well.
"Collin Klein is one of the most competitive dudes I've ever been around," Patterson says. "You can feel it on the field. You feel it off him every day."
Klein guided a Texas A&M offense that was versatile and utilized several running backs. Last season, three ball carriers gained at least 400 rushing yards, six averaged at least 4.20 yards per carry, and four scored at least four touchdowns for an offense that ranked 19th in the FBS with 33.8 points per game and that reached at least 400 total yards in 10 games.
"Collin Klein is the best play-caller in the country," Patterson says. "I totally believe that. I'm a huge fan of his. He just does so many things. There are so many ways where he has guys lined up in different places, and he'll put them in good situations and good one-on-ones, and those guys have opportunities to make plays. I said this to Thad the other day, 'A lot of times, our head coach will put players into positions to win, where he makes an OK player — a dude who works hard and all those things — look like a really good player.' Those players will feel better than they are. And that's how you get guys to continue to go and win.
"You win with guys when they have confidence. A lot of that comes from the way he calls the offense."
K-State's top three running backs could be in for a treat in the fall.
Joe Jackson is a 6-foot, 207-pound native of Haines City, Florida, who Klein recruited to K-State in 2023, comes off a sophomore season in which he earned All-Big 12 Third Team honors, highlighted by his school-record 293 rushing yards at No. 12 Utah — second most rushing yards in a game by a FBS player in 2025 — that topped Hall of Famer Darren Sproles' school record by one single yard. Jackson's 12.9 yards per carry against Utah marked the highest by a K-State player in the history of the Big 12 Conference.
Patterson already knew about Jackson when he arrived at K-State on January 7 — "Joe is a dawg," Patterson said shortly after his four-hour drive to Manhattan — and Patterson has gotten know Jackson plenty more over the past six months.
"It's his leadership," Patterson says. "He's becoming a freaking leader every day. He's starting to take on the challenges. I'm not going to sugar-coat it. I press Joe and I press Joe every day because there's a lot in there. He was the gap-scheme king last year, and he couldn't run a zone to save his life. So, I'm all over him, and I'm a huge fan of Joe Jackson. I really think he's going to be a dude that is continuing to develop, but he's learning how to do it his way, not my way. I don't want him to have to do it my way. He's smart enough and good enough to go out there and play with some great confidence and put a few more tools in his toolbox and allow that kid go and play. He's very smart, and I just want to make him as confident as I can make him before he walks out there in August."
Jay Harris, a 6-foot-1, 215-pounder armed with a tank of a body, is a former Division II First Team All-America running back from Northwest Missouri State and a senior transfer who shined for Oregon in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Peach Bowl. All Harris wanted was a chance after playing just 103 snaps over the course of 11 games in 2025. He'll get many opportunities with the Wildcats.
"Jay runs like a 5-foot-10 dude, but he's 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, and he is a freak show with his build and body, and you rarely see a guy that big be that explosive," Patterson says. "He's very explosive when he catches the ball like a receiver. I'm going to continue to press him. Jay definitely has an opportunity to be something that this league hasn't seen a ton of — a big, physical back who can run. There haven't been a ton of those guys in this league."
Rodney Fields Jr. prepares for his sophomore year at K-State after putting on a show despite limited action his freshman campaign at Oklahoma State. The 5-foot-9, 193-pound Fields rushed for 614 yards and one touchdown and added 28 catches for 276 yards. His 614 rushing yards were sixth among Power 4 freshmen and included a 163-yard effort against Cincinnati, which was the fifth most rushing yards by a freshman in Oklahoma State history. His 276 receiving yards were third among Power 4 freshmen running backs. He ranked sixth in the Big 12 with 98.89 all-purpose yards per game.
"Rodney has that chip on his shoulder there, but he freaking wants to do it right, and he's going to work his tail off," Patterson says. "He is one of those dudes that every opportunity he gets, he's going to play like it's his last one. He's the young guy of the three, and he's here to push those older guys every day. He's learning from Joe and picking up stuff, and when he gets onto the field, he has the chance to do something really special. I didn't play him too much last year at Oklahoma State, but when he was in the game, he made an impact.
"Skill wise, this kid can make you miss in a phone booth. He has the trait of not being hit head-on. It's going to be hard to tackle that guy. Him being a short guy – he's not small, he's short – and it's hard to get a clean shot on him. You rarely see anybody line him up. He has elite quickness in small spaces. He'll be good for us."
A warmness fills Patterson's office as sunlight pours into Bill Snyder Family Stadium and through his wall-sized windows, causing the purple long-sleeve t-shirt with white script "CATS" lettering to glow.
"This place gives me the feeling of, 'We can really get this place going,'" Patterson says. "There are some real dudes in the building and some real competition, and nobody wants to be the weakest link on the football field and in recruiting. Nobody wants to be the weakest link, and that's being created by our head coach."
Patterson gazes at the football field. The season opener against Nicholls on September 5 will quickly be here along with the sellout crowd eager to see the first game of the Klein era — which will also be Patterson's first game in Bill Snyder Family Stadium as well.
"When we run out of that tunnel, it's going to be a special moment here," Patterson says. "I'm telling you, it feels good being here. On social media, you see the little hashtag I use, '#LTSU.' It means, 'Light that s--- up!' That's the feeling I'm going to have coming out of that tunnel on September 5."
Every day is a chance to grow, to enter a new phase, and to build — both as a player, a coach and as a person — and Patterson reflects on his journey to this spot, sitting in this pristine office and on the ground floor of what could be a special ride for many years.
"I've learned so much, especially over these past four or five years, and I've developed so much as a man," Patterson says. "I know what I've been through, but the changes that I've made as a man to develop into who I am now, I'm just thanking God that it happened. It gives me a real testimony for my players. I've been through some stuff. I'm the only boy in my family to never be shot and the only boy to never been in the penitentiary. I've seen some stuff that I won't even talk about during that time growing up where I grew up, and all those situations taught me and created who I am today.
"As I continue to learn and grow now, I just feel like this phase of my life is the phase where I have even more to give back now."
He pauses and grins.
"And that," he says, "is what I'm more excited about than anything."
Players Mentioned
Wednesday, June 24
Tuesday, June 23
Monday, June 22
Monday, June 22
