Coaching Credentials: TCU's Gary Patterson and Boise State's Chris Petersen

Danny FlynnNov 9, 2010

There are no two hotter coaching names in the college football world right now than Texan Christian University’s Gary Patterson and Boise State’s Chris Petersen.

The two men have led their respective programs to amazing success since taking over, transcending the limits of coaching at a Non-BCS school.

The two coaches, who oddly enough were both part of the same UC Davis team back in the mid 80s, Patterson as an assistant and Petersen as a quarterback, have both worked their way up through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of success at their so called “small schools.”

Their two teams have met in the postseason the last two years with each coming away with a victory—Boise State last year in the Fiesta Bowl and TCU in the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl. Who knows, if all breaks right this season, maybe we could see both face off in the National Championship Game to settle the tiebreaker.

Both coaches are likely to be coveted targets for BCS schools who’ll be looking to fill coaching vacancies at the end of the season, but it’s still unknown whether either will want to leave the winning situation they're in right now in order to build up a struggling BCS program.

Let’s take a look at both of their recent resumes which show that Patterson and Petersen are without a doubt two of the finest and most consistently successful coaches we have in the college game today.

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TCU Coach Gary Patterson

Age: 50

Years in Coaching: 1982-Present

Seasons as a Head Coach: 10

Before TCU: After finishing his playing days at Kansas State, Patterson joined Bill Dickey’s staff as a graduate assistant.

After his one season as a GA for the Wildcats, Patterson moved on to become a defensive assistant coach for various lower level colleges, starting out at Tennessee Tech before moving on to schools such as UC Davis and Pittsburg State.

Patterson was hired as defensive coordinator at New Mexico in 1996, and two years later he took the same position on Dennis Franchione’s staff at TCU.

After Franchione left for Alabama in 2000, Patterson was promoted to head coach and coached his first game in the team’s loss in the GMAC Mobile Alabama Bowl.

Overall Record: 95-28 (77 percent)
Home Record: 50-7 (87 percent)
Road Record: 39-18 (68 percent)
Neutral Field Record: 6-3

Conference Record: 59-18 (76 percent)
Conference Championships: three

2002: Conference USA
2005: Mountain West
2009: Mountain West

Bowl Record: 5-4

2000: GMAC Bowl
Southern Miss 28 - TCU 21
2001: Galleryfurniture.com Bowl
Texas A&M 28 - TCU 9
2002: Liberty Bowl
TCU 17 - Colorado 3
2003: Fort Worth Bowl
Boise State 34 - TCU 31
2005: Houston Bowl
TCU 27 - Iowa State 24
2006: Poinsettia Bowl
TCU 37 - Northern Illinois 7
2007: Texas Bowl
TCU 20 - Houston 13
2008: Poinsettia Bowl
TCU 17 - Boise State 16
2009: Fiesta Bowl
Boise State 17 - TCU 10

Top 25 Finishes: six

2002: AP (23), Coaches (22)
2003: AP (25), Coaches (24)
2005: AP (11), Coaches (9)
2006: AP (22), Coaches (21)
2008: AP (7), Coaches (7)
2009: AP (6), Coaches (6)

Players Sent to the NFL: 18

Notable Names

DE Jerry Hughes (2010 - 1st Round Pick - Indianapolis Colts)
LB Daryl Washington (2010 - 2nd Round Pick - Arizona Cardinals)
S Marvin White (2007 - 4th Round Pick - Cincinnati Bengals)
CB Drew Coleman (2006 - 6th Round Pick - New York Jets)

Boise State Coach Chris Petersen

Age: 46

Years in Coaching: 1987-Present

Seasons as a Head Coach: five

Before Boise State: Petersen began his coaching career at UC Davis once his days of playing quarterback for the Aggies finally ended.

The coach would go on to make stops as an offensive assistant at schools like Pittsburgh, Portland State and Oregon throughout the nineties.

Petersen was hired to be first year coach Dan Hawkins' offensive coordinator at Boise State in 2001. He served under in role for five years before being promoted to head coach after Hawkins left the school in 2005 to take over the coaching duties at Colorado.

Overall Record: 57-4 (93 percent)
Home Record: 30-0 (100 percent)
Road Record: 25-2 (92 percent)
Neutral Field Record: 3-2

Conference Record: 35-1
Conference Championships: three