Ferrum men's basketball coach Corrigan exits for West Florida
Patrick Corrigan (center) was named the Conference Carolinas coach of the year last month. He is leaving Ferrum after four seasons at the helm of the men's basketball team.
The Ferrum men's basketball team needs a new head coach.
Patrick Corrigan, the 2025-26 Conference Carolinas coach of the year, said Friday that he has stepped down at Ferrum to become the associate head coach at West Florida.
West Florida announced earlier this month that it is moving up from NCAA Division II to Division I and joining the Atlantic Sun Conference.
"A great opportunity," Corrigan said in a phone interview. "I've always dreamed of this. I've always wanted to be at this (Division I) level."
Corrigan, 35, was 59-48 in his four seasons at the helm of the Panthers. This was Ferrum's third straight winning season and the school's first at the Division II level.
"It was really difficult to leave because I felt like we had put so much work into it and we had improved so much," Corrigan said. "It was a long, hard process to get to that. But the next guy's going to start from a lot better place than where I started from.
"I'm pulling for everybody there and I want to see the next guy be successful."
West Florida hired former Appalachian State assistant and ex-Clemson guard Tanner Smith as its new head coach earlier this month.
Smith and Corrigan used to work together at Charlotte. Corrigan was on that school's staff from the 2013-14 season through the 2017-18 season, starting out as a graduate assistant before becoming associate director of men's basketball operations. Smith was on the staff for three of Corrigan's five seasons there, starting out as director of men's basketball operations before becoming an assistant coach.
Patrick Corrigan has stepped down after four seasons as the Ferrum men's basketball coach to become the associate head coach at West Florida.
"We've been really close ever since and always talked about running a program together," Corrigan said. "He's going to be a great coach, so we want to try to build something together."
Corrigan informed Ferrum last Friday that he would be leaving. He started work at West Florida on Monday.
Corrigan's team made a successful jump from NCAA Division III and the ODAC to Division II and Conference Carolinas. The Panthers went 16-11 overall and finished in third place in Conference Carolinas with a 14-6 league mark this year, which was their inaugural Division II season. The 14 league wins were the most Ferrum has had in a season in any conference. Ferrum had been picked last in the league's preseason poll.
Corrigan credited seniors Gerren Jones and Alfredo Abel-Rivera for this year's success.
"They were both seniors who had played at a really high level in the ODAC. … And then we added some really key pieces that fit really well," Corrigan said. "But having two returners that were completely bought into what we were doing and could make the plays they needed to make on the court just allowed everyone else to buy in to what we were doing. It allowed us to overachieve as a team because our best players were coachable."
Corrigan said Ferrum only had about five men's basketball scholarships this year, but he said that total will be rising.
This was the first time in more than 40 years that Ferrum enjoyed three straight seasons with at least 16 wins.
Corrigan inherited a program that had won just six games in the 2021-22 season.
Ferrum went 10-17 overall and 5-11 in the ODAC in the 2022-23 season, which was Corrigan's first year at the helm of the Panthers.
Patrick Corrigan (center) had three winning seasons in his four years as the Ferrum men's basketball coach.
The Panthers went 16-11 overall and 6-10 in the ODAC in Corrigan's second season as head coach.
Ferrum went 17-9 overall and finished sixth in the ODAC with a 9-7 league mark in Corrigan's third season as head coach. The 17 wins were the most for the team since 2011. Ferrum recorded back-to-back seasons with at least 16 wins for the first time since the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons.
Ferrum was Corrigan's first college head-coaching job.
"It was extremely challenging, both professionally and personally," Corrigan said. "I am a way better coach than I was four years ago when I took the job, just in terms of running a program, coaching in a game, dealing with the players.
"I'm very grateful for my time at Ferrum."
The Hampden-Sydney graduate was an assistant to Tyler Sanborn at Ferrum in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. In 2022, Corrigan left his job as an assistant at a Division II school in California to succeed Sanborn.
Corrigan is the grandson of the late Gene Corrigan, a former NCAA president, ACC commissioner and Virginia athletic director.
West Florida must begin a three-year NCAA reclassification process, so it won't be eligible for the NCAA Tournament until the 2029-30 season.
"The potential is there," Corrigan said. "It's going to take a little bit of time, but I think in two, three years there's no reason we shouldn't be competing in the A-Sun."
Mark Berman (540) 981-3125
