Gary Patterson is mulling a return to the Texas support staff, according to reports from Chip Brown of Horns247 and Bobby Burton of Inside Texas.
Patterson and a Texas spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Patterson, 63, spent 2022 as a special assistant to head coach Steve Sarkisian after concluding a 22-year run as TCU's head coach during the 2021 campaign.
"One of the things about being a head coach, when you're not a head coach you know how to be a great assistant. I know how to be a solider. I've just been kind of feeling my way in, finding the things I can help with. Whatever Sark wants me to do, I've been trying to do. It's been fun," Patterson said in a radio interview during the summer of 2022.
"When we park in the parking lot, I park as far back in the parking lot as I can, where everybody understands (what I'm there to do.) Like I said before, I'm just trying to help."
Patterson stepped away from that role this spring, citing to spend more time with family, but left open the possibility of a return.
Texas jumped from 102nd to 18th in yards per play and from 99th to 28th in scoring from 2021 to '22, improvements that coincided in a growth from five to eight wins in Year 2 under Steve Sarkisian.
Texas is set to return its entire defensive staff intact for the third straight season: coordinator/outside linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski, co-coordinator/inside linebackers coach Jeff Choate, pass game coordinator/secondary coach Terry Joseph, defensive line coach Bo Davis, and safeties coach Blake Gideon.
After successfully integrating Patterson to the staff in 2022, Sarkisian hired former Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst, former NFL special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis, and former Army and FCS defensive coordinator Payam Saadat as special assistants to work with their respective sides of the ball.
And now more help could be on the way.
Texas opens is season Sept. 2 against Rice (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox).
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