SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - When it happened without warning or explanation, when Keith Patterson departed as West Virginia's defensive coordinator right after national signing day in 2014 and was hired for the same job at Arizona State, it seemed so unexpected.
He'd been coaching since his first job as a graduate assistant in 1986, and there were 12 jobs at eight high schools and colleges before he arrived at WVU in 2012 - and that doesn't count the seven weeks he was technically the defensive coordinator at Arkansas State during the offseason between the 2011 season at Pitt and two years with the Mountaineers.
But it shouldn't have been a shock, and not because Patterson has known Sun Devils coach Todd Graham for decades. Patterson, who had four jobs in four seasons and was tired of moving after packing and unpacking three times in three months, was ultimately in need of one more move.
The time was right when he left WVU and joined Arizona State, a fact he carefully explains before his past meets his present and the Mountaineers (7-5) and Sun Devils (6-6) play in Saturday's Cactus Bowl. The 10:15 p.m. game at Chase Field will be televised on ESPN.
"I heard Nick Saban talk about this last week, but sometimes people get so hung up on the job when there's another side of everything," Patterson said. "When you've got a family and you're trying to do the best you can for everybody involved, it can really be so difficult. With my family all being in the midwest and traveling east and things like that, I knew this would be a little more convenient from that standpoint."
Patterson spent most of his career coaching in Oklahoma and was at Tulsa from 2003-10. His stepson Kelby was playing high school football in Oklahoma when Patterson was with the Mountaineers. Patterson's wife, Melissa, was one of the team moms who helped put together pregame meals on Thursday nights and went to the games on Friday nights.
"Then she would catch a 6 a.m. flight out of Oklahoma City, land in Pittsburgh, drive to Morgantown and get there typically by the end of the first quarter," Patterson recalled. "She would stay until Wednesday and then go back home to Oklahoma and do it all over again.
"There was about a six-week stretch that second year when she was driving and flying to all these games that just absolutely got the best of her. That was the thing that was so hard for me."
Patterson's second WVU season was Kelby's senior year, and he'd follow Keith and Melissa's two stepdaughters and one daughter out of the house and on to college the following summer. Patterson was looking for a solution as Graham was looking for a defensive coordinator.
Graham and Patterson were roommates who both played safety at Oklahoma's East Central University in the 1980s, and Graham later hired Patterson at Allen High in Texas, Tulsa and Pitt.
"I thought, 'You know what? Now's probably the time to do this,'" Patterson said.
It's worked out for everyone. Patterson worked with Tony Gibson at Pitt, and Patterson's hiring at WVU in 2013 helped bring Gibson back to the program a year later. Gibson, who kept his eye on the Mountaineers after leaving at the end of the 2007 regular season, succeeded Patterson to get his first shot as a defensive coordinator.
Melissa's life is substantially easier. The family still has its home in Oklahoma, but she spends some time here with Patterson during the season, and she can drive from the airport to his office in about 10 minutes. When Patterson is busy recruiting, she can take a direct flight that lasts less than two hours to Oklahoma City and then drive an hour to their house.
"When I left to go recruiting early this month, she went to Oklahoma and got started on decorating the house and the Christmas shopping," Patterson said. "She'll be back there until January. We can pick and choose now."
Melissa still watches WVU's games, even if she has to record them and catch up later. Patterson was WVU's linebackers coach, and he has emotional ties to the veterans who today form the strength of the defense.
He's as fond of his current arrangement as he was of his time with the Mountaineers and Dana Holgorsen, the head coach who hired Patterson because his Pitt defense stymied WVU's Orange Bowl team in 2011.
"Dana was unbelievable to me, just absolutely great," Patterson said. "He's got a great mind for the game, and I learned a lot of things from him. But to get back into my comfort zone as far as knowing how things are with my family and working with a coach I've known for as long as I've known [Graham], it's been pretty good for us."
Now, though, Patterson has to go about defending the Mountaineers, and it's not the same as it once was. WVU is sixth in the nation in rushing attempts per game (49.08) and 14th in rushing yards per game (235.25).
The Sun Devils are No. 19 in rushing defense (124.4 yards per game). Cal Poly had a season-high 284 yards against them, the only time an opponent had more than 184 yards. Five opponents finished with fewer than 100 yards, including four in a row in conference play.
"As we were sitting and watching them, in some regard it did surprise me a little bit because it wasn't the spread we were accustomed to and that we still see [within the Pac-12] from Mike Leach and Washington State," said Patterson, who coaches the linebackers and defensive special teams.
"But on the other hand, Dana's very smart, and when you sit there and look at the personnel and the offensive line that's got pretty good size, they've done an unbelievable job adjusting to their personnel.
In Patterson's two seasons at WVU, the offense ran the ball 47.9 and 46.9 percent of the time and averaged 39.5 and then 26.3 points per game. In the past two seasons, the Mountaineers have run the ball 51.3 and now 60.9 percent of the time and averaged 33.5 and 33.3 points per game. Patterson's two WVU teams won 11 games. The past two teams have won 14.
But his two teams didn't have Rushel Shell and only had Wendell Smallwood as a freshman in 2013. These past two teams have seen Shell lead the team in rushing in 2014 with 788 yards and Smallwood nearly double that with 1,447 yards this season.
In Patterson's view, the biggest addition was offensive line coach Ron Crook, who came from Stanford in 2013 and is responsible for blending his power running principles in with Holgorsen's spread designs.
Patterson said WVU's inside running game is the best Arizona State has seen this season.
"Since I knew his Stanford influence, I knew there was a reason Dana hired Ron, and it's evident when you look at how they run the ball so effectively now with their power plays and their counters," Patterson said. "It's a little unusual to see them doing it, but let me tell you something now, they run the ball so effectively and so impressively that it didn't take me long to figure out we better be able to stop the run or we'll be in trouble."