My Day at Meet the Frogs

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY SportsI remember the first time I ever saw Gary Patterson walk into a room. I was in the weight room, a freshman walk-on track and field member in August 2001. I was working through a foot injury, and I was using an elliptical machine when he walked into the room. Admittedly, my first thought was how short he was for a football coach (sorry, Coach P). My second thought was that the room seemed to come to a stop. This was mainly due to the fact that football players made up the majority of the room. But several other teams were there, too, and it seemed as though everyone stopped to take notice of the new Head Football Coach. It was Gary Patterson’s first year in the lead coaching position, having taken over for Dennis Franchione, who left to Alabama. You could tell he already had the respect of his players by the way they turned their attention to him.

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