Patterson better off to wait

As colleague Jimmy Burch explained eloquently in Thursday's newspaper, the Kansas State football job isn't the sleeping sunflower seed that it was when Bill Snyder found it.

Barry Switzer and Mack Brown are right in saying that Snyder may have done the coaching job of the century in resurrecting the K-State program. But the recruiting rules have changed.

The junior college pipeline, long a Snyder staple, has been narrowed considerably, and the Wildcats have had to go to the rear of the long line of schools recruiting Texas prospects. Manhattan alum Gary Patterson has a better chance of signing a good Texas recruiting class at TCU than he would at Kansas State.

And don't think the new NCAA rule against shuttling recruits on private planes isn't a factor.

Patterson can easily fly out-of-state recruits into D/FW Airport. At K-State, it would be a 238-mile round-trip commute from the Kansas City airport. The new KSU coach's recruits will be sound asleep by the time they reach campus.

And with all due respects to Patterson's alma mater, why aim that low? Patterson is just one more 10-1 season away from having the really big boys interested in him.

Hey, the Texas A&M job may be open.