Ex-Hofstra assistant Patenaude hopes his luck improves

Gallows humor is the only way Dave Patenaude can handle his situation. The 41-year-old football coach is out of work - for the second time - through no fault of his own.

Patenaude was head coach at New Haven, a nationally prominent Division II program until it dropped the sport in 2004. He had to work his way back, at one point coaching for free, before becoming the offensive coordinator at Hofstra. When Hofstra disbanded last month, Pastenaude took on the unwanted distinction of being a part of two extinct programs.

"I have to sign a waiver that any program I sign with, that program cannot get dropped," Patenaude said from his home in New Haven.

The thought that Hofstra would end football never entered his mind when Patenaude came to Hempstead three seasons ago. After the ordeal at New Haven, he volunteered at Holy Cross and eventually became a paid assistant before Hofstra coach Dave Cohen offered him a nice contract to run the offense in Hempstead.

"You think with a program that's as rich with the history of football as Hofstra, that with a strong program going forward, there was never any indication [dropping the sport] was being considered," he said. "It certainly was a shock when we got the call."

Patenaude was recruiting in Florida when Cohen called him. If Patenaude thought it was a joke, no one was laughing.

"Not by the tone in his voice," Patenaude said. "It was like somebody had just stolen something from him. It was pretty devastating."

Patenaude had long ago steeled himself to the business of college football, saying, "It's always in the back of your mind that changes will be made, because that is the landscape of college football. Guys that go to bowl games are getting fired. It is such an unpredictable business, so you are never in a comfort zone even when you first sign a contract. There's always something in the back of your mind if somebody doesn't like something you are doing, they can always make a change."

But those thoughts never surfaced when his career was going well. He signed a multi-year contract at New Haven in 2002.

"We were making two or three flights a year and that took a huge chunk out of the budget," he said.

Unable to trim costs, football was dropped. He volunteered at Holy Cross just to stay in the sport. That turned into a paying position. And who knows what would have happened had he not left for Hofstra.

"I don't ever look at things with regret," Patenaude said. "I think everything in life is a process. Hofstra afforded me the opportunity to go down there and work with some good guys, coach some great kids, be involved with some really good wins."

He has a wife, Christine, and two young daughters, Eva 6, and Estelle, 1. "I've been with my wife since high school," he said. "She is a football gal, she understands the football process."

So does Pastenaude.

"You become a lot more skeptical," he said. "You are a lot more jaded, not only because of this situation, just looking at the sport as a whole. As a young guy your are kind of gung ho. You think you're going to be the next coach at Boston College. You put up with a lot of things, the hours, you are so locked in at making that run at your career. As you get a little bit older and you have kids and a family you start to look at things a little bit differently. What is the cost-benefit of being a college football coach? I didn't consider that I ever really worked a day in my life, getting up, breaking tape and being around the guys to me wasn't work. But you have to consider at what cost that is happening."

Still, he will come back for more. When jobs open up, Patenaude will apply.

"If I never coached another down I feel like I've had a good career," he said. "I know a lot of really good coaches who are out of work and it's going to be a situation where one of their buddies can make a call for you, get you in front of somebody because this is such a cut-throat profession. I certainly still would like to exhaust all the avenues of being a college football coach. It is in my blood, it is what I love to do."