FORT WORTH, Texas — I was drifting toward the door to exit Gary Patterson’s office when I referenced the job I took a little more than a year ago and made a passing remark.



“You know, Gary, people around Tennessee talk about you like the one that got away.”



“Oh yeah? You want to know why they didn’t hire me?”



Yes, I absolutely did.



Ten years ago, Tennessee decided Lane Kiffin was the right man to replace Phillip Fulmer and said thanks but no thanks to Patterson, who had won 41 games in the previous four seasons and led TCU to a pair of top-10 finishes.



Kiffin, then 33, spent much of that fall unemployed after being fired by the Raiders in the middle of his second season as a first-time head coach. That followed a public, contentious feud with then-Raiders owner Al Davis.



During Kiffin’s one season at Tennessee, Patterson led TCU to a 12-1 record. In 2010, Patterson’s Frogs went...