'The Sky's the Limit': Cory Patterson Excited for Coaching Opportunity With Purdue Football
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — For Cory Patterson, joining Ryan Walters and the Purdue football program has already opened the door for new opportunities.
Alongside being the wide receivers coach for the upcoming 2023 season, Patterson will serve as the associate head coach for the Boilermakers. He spent the last five years at Illinois as a position coach, including two seasons while Walters called the shots for the Fighting Illini on the defensive side of the ball.
The two have worked alongside one another for a short time to this point, but Patterson could tell almost immediately that Walters was on the fast track toward rising up the coaching ranks.
"It didn't take long to understand that this guy was going to be something special," Patterson said of Walters. "And he's going to have an opportunity to do some big things."
Patterson mentored the Illinois tight ends for three seasons before switching gears and coaching the team's running backs. He helped guide star running back Chase Brown to an All-American season. Brown was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award in 2022 and tallied 1,643 yards on the ground, ranking fourth in the country.
While Patterson was working with the Illinois running backs, he faced a formidable defense in practice each and every day with Walters at the helm as the team's defensive coordinator.
By the end of last season, the Fighting Illini led the country in scoring defense, allowing 12.3 points per game while ranking second in yards allowed at 263.8 per contest.
After Walters was announced as the 37th head football coach at Purdue, he approached Patterson about joining his new staff in West Lafayette, and the decision to join was a no-brainer.
"After working with him for a couple years, you can kind of see how hard this guy works and just how determined he is about doing special things," Patterson said. "Even with our defense, when you saw the defense, it just looked like a different entity of our team last year and the last couple of years just to get those guys to rally behind him. And I'll just love to see what he'll do with a full team."
The path to collegiate coaching has been anything but straightforward for Patterson. He was a graduate of Lindenwood University in St. Charles in 2022 where his playing career was cut short by a leg injury.
Patterson then went on to work in corporate accounting and became a volunteer coach for a youth football team at a local Boys & Girls Club. He initially had no intention of becoming a full-time coach.
"At first, I never thought I was going to coach college football at all. I never wanted to, I never had a desire to coach college football," Patterson said. "I love coaching youth football. And when I started coaching, I didn't want to go to high school football at that point. So when I got a call from my first high school job, it was something I turned down for a couple years before I ever did it."
Patterson got his first experience as a high school coach serving as an assistant at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis from 2009-12. He would later join the coaching staff at Trinity Catholic High School as an offensive coordinator before becoming the team's head coach.
He helped lead Christian Brothers to a state championship and two district championships. Under Patterson, Trinity posted an overall record of 27-6 across three seasons, establishing itself as a top high school program in St. Louis and the state of Missouri.
Patterson was named the Archdiocesan Athletic Association (AAA) Conference Coach of the Year all three seasons as the head coach of Trinity.
"I thought I was going to retire a high school coach," Patterson said. "I just wanted to win as many state championships as possible. And then the door opened. It took me a while to even accept that position. And now that I'm here, let's go. The sky's the limit, I'm ready for whatever."
Now at Purdue, Patterson is excited to help uphold the standard of producing a pass-heavy offense that is among one of the best in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers have had a wide receiver lead the conference in receptions in each of the last five seasons.
So far, returning veterans TJ Sheffield, Abdur-Rhamaan Yaseen and Broc Thompson are among those who are setting themselves apart as leaders. But as the offseason continues, someone will have to emerge as the top option in the passing game.
The Boilermakers will be without last year's leading pass catchers Charlie Jones and Payne Durham, two players that made the decision to declare for the upcoming NFL Draft.
Yaseen and Thompson will both look to contribute to the offense after dealing with injuries a season ago. Sheffield, a rising redshirt senior, was third on the team with 46 catches, 480 yards receiving and four touchdowns in 2022.
"I'm excited about it because there's not a clear number one," Patterson said. "You're going to see some guys that are fighting, scratching and clawing, competing every day just to get that opportunity. And we're going to find out real fast who are going to be those guys because in this offense, you'll see that it's going to be about more than one guy."
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