The ritual is for Gail and Keith Patterson to speak with their son Gary, the football coach at Texas Christian, on the phone after his games.</p><p>When they spoke to him last Thursday, there was no mention of the Kansas State coaching vacancy. But sensing that he might be linked to the job, the Pattersons later took their phone off the hook.</p><p>Of course, that meant they couldn&#8217;t hear from Gary, who apparently tried to call Friday, when an Internet report about Patterson becoming K-State&#8217;s coach was denied by Patterson and the Wildcats.</p><p>&#8220;But he spoke to his sister, and he told her, &#8216;Make sure you tell Mom and Dad I&#8217;m not taking that job,&#8217; &#8221; Gail Patterson said. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;s not taking that job.&#8221;</p><p>If that&#8217;s the case, it would remove one of the most attractive candidates K-State may or may not have identified to replace Ron Prince. And Wednesday, there wasn&#8217;t much information filtering out of Bramlage Coliseum, where athletic director Bob Krause&#8217;s office is located.</p><p>&#8220;There is nothing new to report on the football coaching search,&#8221; Krause said in a statement. &#8220;The process is ongoing, and we will reserve comment until the appropriate time.&#8221;</p><p>Efforts to reach Patterson were unsuccessful Wednesday.</p><p>In 1988, Patterson was Pittsburg State&#8217;s linebackers coach while Chuck Broyles was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. Incidentally, the head coach was Dennis Franchione, who expressed some interest recently in the K-State job.</p><p>Broyles, now the Gorillas&#8217; head coach, recalls Patterson as a hard-working, plain-talking coach who had plenty of ideas. And over the years, not much has changed, even though the two see each other only at coaching conventions and clinics.</p><p>He hadn&#8217;t heard Patterson&#8217;s Friday comments &#8212; &#8220;I&#8217;m not real happy with people who fire people before the season is over, and I would be less happy with anybody who would ever talk about taking another job until they finish their own,&#8221; Patterson told the <em>Fort Worth Star-Telegram </em>&#8212; and Broyles didn&#8217;t seem particularly shocked.</p><p>&#8220;GP will speak his mind,&#8221; Broyles said. &#8220;He&#8217;s well-respected in the coaching profession. &#8230; He&#8217;s from the Midwest. He doesn&#8217;t have anything to prove. &#8230; If he said something, he believes what he said. He&#8217;s not blowing smoke up anybody.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a straight-shooter.&#8221;</p><p>If so, he must take after his mother.</p><p>The Pattersons trek to most of TCU&#8217;s home games. Gail Patterson said it&#8217;s 509 miles from Rozel, Kan., to Fort Worth, an 8 1/2 -hour drive for them that usually would take about seven to eight hours, but they take their time. Fort Worth is &#8220;a nice place,&#8221; she said, where Patterson bought his first home.</p><p>&#8220;But it&#8217;s also a nice place to leave,&#8221; she added.</p><p>She&#8217;d rather be in Kansas, but she&#8217;s not so sure about her son.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know if he&#8217;ll ever come back,&#8221; she said Wednesday. &#8220;He has told us, &#8216;I&#8217;d like to be closer when you get older.&#8217; I guess if the right job came along. &#8230; All I know is he has always wanted to get to a bigger school so he could get into the BCS. Before he quits coaching, he&#8217;d like to be in the BCS.</p><p>&#8220;He knows he has to go to a larger school.&#8221;</p><p>Gail Patterson hasn&#8217;t spoken with her son since last week. She did, however, listen to his Friday call into a Fort Worth radio station and came away with a clear conclusion.</p><p>&#8220;Yes, he was angry,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;d be very, very, very surprised if he ended up at K-State.&#8221;