On Friday, USC’s new Defensive Coordinator, Gary Patterson, landed in Los Angeles, then immediately went to watch game film. Since then, he said he has been spending about 13 hours — from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. — preparing for the upcoming season.

Though it has been four seasons since the College Football Hall of Fame coach was at the helm of TCU — where he spent 24 seasons, 21 as head coach — it didn’t take long for Patterson to get back into the coaching mindset.

“My wife’s been here looking for a place. I said hello to her. She went to sleep; I went to work,” Patterson said Wednesday afternoon in an introductory news conference. “She said she married me for better, for worse, but not for lunch.”

Patterson said his wife, Kelsey, jokes that she is his “mistress” during the season due to how much time he spends working. However, Patterson said the decision to return to coaching was mutual.

“She knows I love the game, have an energy for the game,” Patterson said. “If I didn’t think we could do it, be where we needed to be, I wouldn’t be here.”

‘My wife watched Netflix, I watched film’

Patterson, 65, was named USC’s defensive coordinator Friday after three full seasons away from college football, outside of a one-year stint as a consultant at Baylor in 2024. Though he is most known for his illustrious career at TCU, Patterson began coaching as a linebacker coach at Tennessee Tech in 1984 before serving in various defensive assistant and defensive coordinator positions, eventually taking over the Horned Frogs in 2001.

At TCU, Patterson led his team to six conference championships, 17 bowl appearances and a 181-79 overall record — a resume that led to his first-ballot induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

“We felt like we landed on one of the best guys in the business, and a guy that’s obviously done it for a long time at as high a level as anyone, ever,” Head Coach Lincoln Riley said in Wednesday’s news conference. “The job he did in the program at TCU, the sustained success, unprecedented success at that school, speaks for itself.”

Alongside Riley, Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen and football General Manager Chad Bowden were also in attendance, though they did not take questions.

Patterson said he intentionally spent three years away from coaching so he would be eligible for the Hall of Fame before returning. However, he didn’t spend the time relaxing; instead, he was preparing for his next venture.

When he made an appearance on Amazon Fire TV’s “College Football Kickoff,” it wasn’t just for fun and to watch football — the show also provided him with a subscription to Catapult Thunder, a video analysis platform often used by coaches.

“My wife watched Netflix, I watched film,” Patterson said.

Though it will be his first assistant coach role since 2000, Patterson said he has embraced the difference in responsibility and complimented Riley’s offensive prowess, noting that he never beat his former Big 12 rival when Riley was Oklahoma’s head coach. Most of Patterson’s expertise lies on the defensive end; five of his TCU teams led the country in total defense.

“I love it,” Patterson said of being defensive coordinator. “Anytime that I was ever part of a team that had a great offense and scored a lot of points, we won a lot of ball games.” 

USC might not see an ‘all Gary Patterson defense’

While some incoming coordinators and head coaches bring a group of assistants that they have worked with previously when they take a new job, Patterson appears to have largely focused on integrating into USC’s current staff. 

Patterson praised USC’s group of assistants, saying they, alongside former Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn, improved the Trojan defense significantly last season. USC had the 51st-ranked total defense in the country last season and the 58th the year before — much improved over the 121st-out-of-133 ranking in 2023 under Lynn’s predecessor Alex Grinch.

“Instead of just coming in and saying, ‘This is how we’re going to do it,’ it’s been a little bit more work of trying to put it all together,” Patterson said. “Not necessarily are you going to see an all-Gary Patterson defense.”

Though it is unclear whether Patterson was involved in the decision, multiple reports, including one from 247Sports, said USC is expected to hire Baylor passing game coordinator Paul Gonzales, who previously worked under Patterson, to replace former Secondary Coach Doug Belk. Multiple news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, reported that Belk’s contract was not renewed days before Patterson’s hiring became official, but after he emerged as a top candidate for the job.

Gonzales served as cornerbacks and safeties coach in six seasons under Patterson. He continued as safeties coach after Patterson and the Horned Frogs mutually parted ways until he started at Baylor in 2025.

The only other reported coaching change is the hire of special teams coordinator Mike Ekeler, who will also coach linebackers under Patterson. During his introductory news conference, Patterson mentioned defensive line coach Eric Henderson — who was widely speculated for multiple defensive coordinator openings after calling USC’s defensive plays during their Valero Alamo Bowl loss — by name, meaning he is likely to return this season.

After watching many games in preparation for his return, Patterson said he is excited to coach at USC, which he said has the ability and players to compete with any of the top teams in the country, including Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, Washington and Penn State — all of which are on the Trojans’ schedule next year. He said he may even tweak his iconic 4-2-5 scheme — a storied part of his TCU run — to compete in the Big Ten.

“A lot of people, to be honest with you, probably would run from it … but that’s why I wanted to get back into it,” Patterson said of USC’s 2026 schedule. “Hopefully I can be that last piece to help SC get over the bar, get into the playoffs, to win a national championship.”