When the 2021 football season begins, Marcus Patton will start his sixth season as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach for Texan Football.
Patton led Tarleton’s first NCAA Division I campaign in the unprecedented spring football season of 2021. The Texans went 5-3 in their first season at the FCS level and earned their first win over a Division I program against FBS Independent New Mexico State on February 21. The first Tarleton defense to take on Division I held opponents to 19.3 points per game and made three interceptions in the secondary. In four of those games, the Texan defense managed to hold their opponents to under 200 yards of total offense.
Prior to making their Division I debut, Patton and the Tarleton defense put together the most impressive season in school history in 2018 as the Texans set a school record with 12 victories. With Patton calling the defense, the Texans allowed just 16.4 points per game and only 300 yards per contest en route to the first outright LSC title in program history and advancing to the NCAA regional finals with a 12-1 record and a No. 5 national ranking. The 214 points allowed are the fewest for the Texans in the NCAA era.
The Texan defense recorded 17 interceptions and had 33 sacks in 13 games. The defense also posted two shutouts – including a 58-0 rout over No. 24 Azusa Pacific in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. The Texan defense had four defensive touchdowns on the year. The rushing defense was one of the best in the country, holding teams to only 101.2 yards per game and just 2.7 yards per rush.
He coached the LSC Defensive Back of the Year in Devin Hafford and had 13 all-conference defensive players. Patton coached three All-American’s in Hafford (CB), Tyrell Thompson (DT) and Jai Edwards (FS). Patton coached a pair of defenders who went on to the NFL in linebacker EJ Speed, who was drafted in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts, the highest draft pick in program history, and Tyrell Thompson, who signed a free agent deal with the Los Angeles Rams and was later drafted into the XFL.
He followed up in 2019 with another banner year leading the Tarleton defense to another undefeated regular season and LSC Championship. Under Patton’s leadership, Tarleton boasted the LSC Defensive Player of the Year (B.J. Jefferson), LSC Defensive Lineman of the Year (Jordan Wells), and LSC Defensive Back of the Year (Prince Robinson). Robinson was also a preseason all-America selection and was named to the Reese’s Senior Bowl Preseason Watch List as only one of three Division II athletes to watch by the illustrious program.
In his debut season with the purple and white, Patton went to work in turning around a Tarleton defense that surrendered the most yards in school history the season before. In Patton’s debut season, the Texans improved dramatically by improving their points and yards allowed by large margins. The Texans saw an improvement of 120.9 yards and 13.5 points per game from 2015 to 2016 under Patton in his debut campaign, including a starring showcase against Eastern New Mexico on Oct. 15, 2016 when Patton’s defense held the No. 2-ranked rushing offense to 100 yards below its season average in a 26-16 road victory.
He coached Tarleton’s Cody Burtscher to one of the most decorated seasons by a single player in school history as the senior was named first-team All-LSC, All-Region, AFCA All-America, and the Lone Star Conference Linebacker of the Year under Patton’s leadership. In addition to Burtscher, Patton’s defense also boasted EJ Speed, who earned second-team honors and led the nation in forced fumbles, as well as honorable mention All-LSC players Dominique Martin, Chase Varnado, Basil Jackson, and Treston Ridge.
He followed that up in 2017 by keeping the Texan Defense among the top four in the Lone Star Conference in Scoring Defense (27.8). Tarleton held six of its 12 opponents in 2017 to 24 points or fewer, which included keeping Western Oregon to a season-low six points in the Homecoming Game.
In his two seasons at Tarleton, Patton has coached a large share of All-Conference athletes. Including Burtscher in 2016, Patton has had 12 different All-LSC honors. In 2017, junior DT Tyrell Thompson joined the elite list of Tarleton All-Americans after being named a Don Hansen national honorable mention award winner.
Patton came to Tarleton after spending the 2014-15 seasons as the defensive coordinator at Colorado Mesa. In 2015, his Maverick defense was one of the best in the nation and finished in the top-10 in the country in multiple defensive categories including: fourth-down conversion defense, defensive touchdowns scored, and turnover margin with 28 defensive takeaways including 19 interceptions. Mesa also finished No. 11 in the nation in red-zone defense and No. 12 in the nation in scoring defense after allowing just 17.8 points per game.
“In today’s football, there’s going to be a lot of offense,” said Patton. “People are going to score points in today’s game, but you have to be able to play good enough defense to give yourself a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter. It’s unrealistic to think that you can hold teams to the zero-to-three-point range, but we want to keep it manageable and give ourselves a chance to win the game. We’re going to do that with fundamental defense.
“I think one of my big strengths is teaching the fundamentals,” he continued. “We need to be able to tackle, be tough, and fly around. You can talk schematics all you want, but I’m a believer that you win football games with tackling and taking on blocks.”
Patton, who has also spent time as a collegiate assistant coach at Fairmont State, Seton Hill, UCLA, Indiana State, and South Florida, played football for Kansas State University from 2000-04. He joins former Wildcat, Jonathan Beasley, on the Tarleton coaching staff and was a student-athlete when Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Performance Rod Cole was the head strength and conditioning coach for Coach Bill Snyder’s team. Patton was also teammates with NFL athletes Darren Sproles, Jordy Nelson, and Terrence Newman.
"Patton was an outstanding player at Kansas State and he's proven to be an outstanding coach. I'm very excited to have him at Tarleton," said Cole.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Patton earned a bachelor’s degree in social science from Kansas State and then went on to coach four seasons at the high school level in Florida before returning to the college ranks as a defensive assistant. In his career, he has coached numerous all-conference players and had an NCAA All-American at Colorado Mesa in 2015. He has had over 10 former players continue their careers at the NFL level and was responsible for recruiting even more that went on to play professionally.
