Texas insider says Steve Patterson was in UT’s ‘final three’
Oct 31, 2013, 4:37 PM | Updated: 4:38 pm
Wednesday, Tyler Lockman of FoxSportsArizona.com reported that Arizona State VP of Athletics Steve Patterson had been offered the athletic director position at his alma mater, the University of Texas.
Arizona Sports 620’s Paul Calvisi confirmed the report that while no formal offer was made to Patterson, there was an understanding that the job was his if he wanted it. Texas is looking for a replacement for AD DeLoss Dodds, who is retiring next August.
Chip Brown, of Orangebloods.com and 104.9 The Horn in Austin, added to that report Thursday morning on Arizona Sports 620.
“From what I was told, he was in the final three,” Brown told Doug and Wolf. “I was told that the committee definitely wanted to talk to Steve Patterson, I’m told he was not offered the job, but that’s not surprising coming from the Texas side of things.”
Brown went on to describe a power struggle between University of Texas President Bill Powers and the Board of Regents, which has made it difficult to get a straight answer from anyone.
“I reported that Powers’ choice would be Oliver Luck, the athletic director at West Virginia,” Brown said. “I think Bill Powers thought he was going to make this hire and I think he’s probably still hoping he gets to make this hire, but the Texas Board of Regents have been going after him for the last year and a half over the direction of higher education in this state.”
Regardless of how firm the offer to Patterson was, the fact is he’s not going to be the next athletic director in Austin, and Brown shared the reasons why.
“I’ve talked to several top athletic directors, some of them were candidates for this job, they were names mentioned and then, quickly, they were not candidates for this job because they indicated they were going to stay where they were,” Brown said. “They told me, ‘everyone would want to be the AD at Texas — with those resources, that brand, living in Austin — but, it is not the job it could be or would be if they had stability in the president’s office.'”
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