Darrell Patterson on his recruiting experience, and on one that got away from him on Signing Day:

 My parents were very involved in my recruiting process.  That's because I had an uncle (Gerald Patterson) who had been the first running back in the state to rush for 4,000 yards in 1967, but his college choice (Nevada) turned out to not be a good one.  He did not have a lot of guidance in the process, and he wound up coming home pretty quickly.  With my parents, local connections were important when looking at potential schools.  I had six visits, and they let me pick three. I chose to visit Michigan, Maryland and Virginia Tech.  They had me visit Tulane, SMU and TCU. The father of the coach from TCU who recruited me (John Somsky) worked with my father in the steel mill, so he had that connection I mentioned.  There was not any kind of Signing Day drama.  I was signed, sealed and delivered to TCU, so he came by and picked up the papers.

When I was coaching at Stanford, I had a commitment from Chase Beeler. He was from Jenks, Oklahoma and his mother really wanted him to stay home and go to OU. The night before Signing Day, I started getting text messages from his mother, saying that we had not been truthful and misled him and he needed to stay home.  Chase had scored a 34 on his ACT and wanted to go to Stanford for more than just football.  But I could see where it was going, and it wasn't a surprise that the FAX never came in.   Long story short, one year later after I had left, he wound up transferring to Stanford and was a starter and All American candidate for them this year.  He's a great kid and we still keep in touch, just from the relationship we developed during recruiting.