TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati is in the early stages of the search to find Gary Patterson’s successor.
The school parted ways with its all-time winningest football coach on Sunday, a day after the team dropped to 3-5 on the season following a 31-12 loss at Kansas State.
Donati has received plenty of interest in the position and detailed his list of criteria for the next coach on Tuesday. Among what TCU is hoping to land is a current sitting head coach who has an offensive background and is engaged in the new world of college athletics from NIL issues to the transfer portal.
SMU’s Sonny Dykes has emerged as a candidate early on, but he’s not a lock. There’s a list of candidates the school plans to meet with including several minority coaches.
“Diversity is important in all of our hires here at TCU, especially in athletics,” Donati said. “Having a diverse applicant pool is a priority. Fortunately, we have already gotten a lot of interest from a diverse pool.”
Colleges do not have a “Rooney Rule” like NFL teams being required to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach openings. But Donati said the school essentially has its own protocols when it comes to hires of this magnitude.
“It’s definitely something that’s a priority of ours,” Donati said. “Although we don’t have a formal Rooney Rule, it’s something that, as an institution, is a priority across the board.”
Here are a few diversity candidates who could emerge during TCU’s process to find its next coach:
Jay Norvell: The Nevada head coach has gotten his team bowl-eligible for four straight seasons now with the Wolf Pack sitting at 6-2 this season. Norvell, 58, checks two boxes as he’s current head coach with an offensive background.
Plus, Norvell has Big 12 experience. He was part of Bob Stoops’ staff at Oklahoma from 2008-14 and then coached at Texas in 2015.
Tony Elliott: TCU would prefer a sitting head coach but the Clemson offensive coordinator has been on several schools’ short list including Tennessee’s last offseason.
Elliott, 41, who has been at Clemson since 2011, has been part of two national championship teams in 2016 and 2018. However, the Tigers are in the midst of a down year.
Curtis Modkins: He is hoping to at least land an interview with his alma mater, sources have told the Star-Telegram. He doesn’t meet Donati’s wish list of being a current college head coach, but he is an alum with ties to TCU great LaDainian Tomlinson, who will be heavily involved in the search process.
Modkins has been the Denver Broncos’ running backs coach since 2018 and has been an offensive coordinator at the NFL level for the Buffalo Bills (2010-12) and San Francisco 49ers (2016).
Modkins, 50, played at TCU from 1989-92 with his first three seasons under Jim Wacker and his final season under Pat Sullivan. He joined Sullivan’s staff as a graduate assistant in 1995 and then coached the secondary in 1996 and tight ends in 1997. Modkins was on Sullivan’s staff when they landed Tomlinson in the 1997 recruiting class.
Modkins also has ties to the current staff with his brother, Jeremy, serving as a defensive analyst from 2014-17 and cornerbacks coach since 2018.
Deion Sanders: The Hall of Fame defensive back who spent time with the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t come from an “offensive background.” But he has found success since taking over Jackson State in 2020, and he’s another coach with ties to Tomlinson as both worked together as analysts at NFL Network.
The Tigers went 4-3 during the COVID-shortened 2020 season and are 7-1 this season, leading the SWAC with a 5-0 conference record and boasting the league’s top-ranked defense.
Sanders, 54, has missed the Tigers’ last two games due to a health issue, but has been praised for rebuilding the program and signing the highest-rated recruiting class in FCS and HBCU history in 2021.
Sanders’ name has been mentioned for the opening at USC by former Trojan great Reggie Bush, but Sanders shut down any speculation that he would leave for that job.
“I’m thankful that Reggie mentioned me,” Sanders said earlier this season. “I’m thankful that he thought much of our friendship that I could be a candidate or whatever. I’m appreciative of that, but I’m locked in, man. I’m locked in. I’m locked in.
“I’m right where I want to be. I’m elated I’m coaching my sons. I’m loving this culture.”
