Aaron Dickens and Chris Level caught up with Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson and talked about reactions to the NFL Draft and coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
Keith, how much fun was it for you last week watching Jordyn have his name called and Broderick have his name called?
“I’ll tell you what, it was very exciting. Obviously, proud of both those guys. Man, I tell you, that very first night just starting off with Jordyn, man, I kind of felt like I got drafted myself. It was just an incredible evening, very proud for Broderick as well as the other guys who signed in those free agent contracts, you know, Doug Coleman. It was just a great, great night. Great day.”
How much fun is that though when you get a phone call from Jordyn really shortly after it happened and he, just to sum it up, says thank you? That’s got to be like what being a coach is all about.
“No doubt about it. That’s the thing that kind of gets lost in a performance-based business is the relationships that you’re able to build, and the thing that was just crazy was just how fast that we were to develop a relationship that was built on trust and, you know, respect. He just bought in to the things that coach Wells brought in as a program, and man, just so excited for him. It was just incredible, and Jordyn and I had been talking leading up to the draft and just about all sorts of things. Man, just to top it off with every single thing that we had talked about from about 15 months ago to become a reality was special.”
What have the last six weeks been like for you as everyone has kind of started to work from home and deal with all these different situations and adversity and chances in routine? What’s it been like for you as a coach and as a husband and those things?
“Yeah, it’s incredible because we’re at the end of our seventh week of what we’ve been doing. You know, Zoom meetings and recruiting, game-planning. I got to give all the credit to Matt (Wells). I mean, he did an incredible job from the day that we got back from spring break organizing our days. We spend early in the morning; we’ll start off whether it be with a team or a unit meeting. Then, we’ll move right into opponent film study, and we’ve had Tech talk in the afternoons with our players, and then position meetings a couple days a week. Then, we’ll set up recruiting meetings and recruiting phone calls with our prospects. Our days have really just been filled. Now, we’re doing our player-exit interviews as if we would’ve gone through a spring football, and then next week we’ll shift gears and put another major emphasis on recruiting as our guys move into finals. So, it’s been really, really good from Matt’s standpoint. Can’t really say what it has been for Melissa. I’ve driven her crazy, I promise you that.”
How hard is it to teach? Because you only had the four spring practices. How hard is it, that you’ve found, to like try to teach and, theoretically, coach over virtually? It’s really the only choice you’ve had, but how hard has that been?
“You know what? I think it has been really incredible because one of things that you kind of stumble on, and you heard them talk about it in the NFL Draft, how there’s so much more of personal touch on the way that did that virtual draft, that they might carry some of the components into next year’s draft. Really, what has been so good for us, I try to keep it very simple, especially on defense. When this thing first hit, I said, ‘our focus is going to be three things: player development, from a standpoint of knowledge of our scheme, individual self-improvement in every regard. Then, the second thing was opponent film study. The third thing was recruiting, and it has been unbelievable the amount of time we have spent talking with our players face-to-face, whether it would be on a one-on-one basis, whether it be as a unit, and then not only evaluating our self, but listening to what your teammates have to say about you. We’ve just an incredible job of all of that. I really think trying to develop a mindset so if we would’ve just been going through spring football, it would’ve been just installing the defense, correcting, teaching and re-teaching. Now, it has given these players, has given them an opportunity to number one: see us in a whole different light. Now, we’re just truly sitting here getting to know what makes them tick? Trying to find out set goals with each one of them individually, talk about things they can improve on, talking about what their perceptions is of themselves as a player compared to what’s the perception of your teammates of you. It is absolutely been a great opportunity for growth for us as a unit, as a team, and you’ll also find out, from an accountability, a dependability, a trust factor, we set a meeting at this time and you got to figure out if you’re going to be on that Zoom meeting and be there on time. I’ll tell you what, it’s been, we’ve taken negative situations, obviously it’s been very unfortunate for the world and being under a crisis, and this virus has been a horrible thing, but we’ve tried to take that negative and turn it into a positive.”
“Well, we’re excited about the future. Obviously, we’ve talked about it a lot, Chris. It’s a process, and we’re just trying to do every single thing that we can every day of the week to get Texas Tech football. Somebody said it to me the other day, one of our coaches on our staff, if we just meet the expectations that every other sport on campus, man, if we can compete at that level, man, we’re going to be doing well. We’re excited about it, man. Truly blessed to be a part of Texas Tech Red Raider athletics.”
Keith, how much fun was it for you last week watching Jordyn have his name called and Broderick have his name called?
“I’ll tell you what, it was very exciting. Obviously, proud of both those guys. Man, I tell you, that very first night just starting off with Jordyn, man, I kind of felt like I got drafted myself. It was just an incredible evening, very proud for Broderick as well as the other guys who signed in those free agent contracts, you know, Doug Coleman. It was just a great, great night. Great day.”
How much fun is that though when you get a phone call from Jordyn really shortly after it happened and he, just to sum it up, says thank you? That’s got to be like what being a coach is all about.
“No doubt about it. That’s the thing that kind of gets lost in a performance-based business is the relationships that you’re able to build, and the thing that was just crazy was just how fast that we were to develop a relationship that was built on trust and, you know, respect. He just bought in to the things that coach Wells brought in as a program, and man, just so excited for him. It was just incredible, and Jordyn and I had been talking leading up to the draft and just about all sorts of things. Man, just to top it off with every single thing that we had talked about from about 15 months ago to become a reality was special.”
What have the last six weeks been like for you as everyone has kind of started to work from home and deal with all these different situations and adversity and chances in routine? What’s it been like for you as a coach and as a husband and those things?
“Yeah, it’s incredible because we’re at the end of our seventh week of what we’ve been doing. You know, Zoom meetings and recruiting, game-planning. I got to give all the credit to Matt (Wells). I mean, he did an incredible job from the day that we got back from spring break organizing our days. We spend early in the morning; we’ll start off whether it be with a team or a unit meeting. Then, we’ll move right into opponent film study, and we’ve had Tech talk in the afternoons with our players, and then position meetings a couple days a week. Then, we’ll set up recruiting meetings and recruiting phone calls with our prospects. Our days have really just been filled. Now, we’re doing our player-exit interviews as if we would’ve gone through a spring football, and then next week we’ll shift gears and put another major emphasis on recruiting as our guys move into finals. So, it’s been really, really good from Matt’s standpoint. Can’t really say what it has been for Melissa. I’ve driven her crazy, I promise you that.”
How hard is it to teach? Because you only had the four spring practices. How hard is it, that you’ve found, to like try to teach and, theoretically, coach over virtually? It’s really the only choice you’ve had, but how hard has that been?
“You know what? I think it has been really incredible because one of things that you kind of stumble on, and you heard them talk about it in the NFL Draft, how there’s so much more of personal touch on the way that did that virtual draft, that they might carry some of the components into next year’s draft. Really, what has been so good for us, I try to keep it very simple, especially on defense. When this thing first hit, I said, ‘our focus is going to be three things: player development, from a standpoint of knowledge of our scheme, individual self-improvement in every regard. Then, the second thing was opponent film study. The third thing was recruiting, and it has been unbelievable the amount of time we have spent talking with our players face-to-face, whether it would be on a one-on-one basis, whether it be as a unit, and then not only evaluating our self, but listening to what your teammates have to say about you. We’ve just an incredible job of all of that. I really think trying to develop a mindset so if we would’ve just been going through spring football, it would’ve been just installing the defense, correcting, teaching and re-teaching. Now, it has given these players, has given them an opportunity to number one: see us in a whole different light. Now, we’re just truly sitting here getting to know what makes them tick? Trying to find out set goals with each one of them individually, talk about things they can improve on, talking about what their perceptions is of themselves as a player compared to what’s the perception of your teammates of you. It is absolutely been a great opportunity for growth for us as a unit, as a team, and you’ll also find out, from an accountability, a dependability, a trust factor, we set a meeting at this time and you got to figure out if you’re going to be on that Zoom meeting and be there on time. I’ll tell you what, it’s been, we’ve taken negative situations, obviously it’s been very unfortunate for the world and being under a crisis, and this virus has been a horrible thing, but we’ve tried to take that negative and turn it into a positive.”
“Well, we’re excited about the future. Obviously, we’ve talked about it a lot, Chris. It’s a process, and we’re just trying to do every single thing that we can every day of the week to get Texas Tech football. Somebody said it to me the other day, one of our coaches on our staff, if we just meet the expectations that every other sport on campus, man, if we can compete at that level, man, we’re going to be doing well. We’re excited about it, man. Truly blessed to be a part of Texas Tech Red Raider athletics.”
