shea patterson eligibility saga

[Bryan Fuller]

Look upon the picture again! He's so red, and if you don't put your tomatoes in blue helmets you're really not maximizing your BLT efficiency. Yep, Shea Patterson is a tomato.

Also something about an approved waiver?

the same five photos will continue this summer [Bryan Fuller]

Good newwwws everyone! As first reported by Chris Balas of The Wolverine and confirmed by Josh Henschke of The Michigan Insider/247, word out of Schembechler Hall this evening is that the NCAA is expected to rule Shea Patterson immediately eligible for this year, though even now 247’s report was a bit measured:

The Michigan Insider is able to confirm published reports that Patterson is expected to be granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA with the news coming as soon as Friday. As of a week ago, the U-M programs confidence was at about 90%. On Thursday, TMI can also confirm that the confidence level has risen.

Ole Miss submitted its last response to Shea’s appeal two weeks ago and a resolution was expected tomorrow-ish. Michigan sources have maintained a high level of confidence during this process, and given the relative strength of Shea’s case versus his former school’s, this outcome was favored, but with the NCAA nothing’s ever certain.

you can’t throw a rock at Schembechler Hall without hitting someone talking up Bush and Dwumfour [Patrick Barron]

We got a lot of good stuff from over the weekend so let’s do another one of these. Depending on what’s leaking the rest of the week I may or may not get another out before the spring game, so I’ll try to make this one pretty comprehensive.

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Quarterback

Do you know what people say you are? [Bryan Fuller]

What we want to hear: Hosanna, hey-sanna, sanna sanna ho, sanna hey, sanna ho, sanna!

What we’re hearing: Multiple practice observers believe Patterson is well ahead of the other two, and the gap between him and Peters/McCaffrey is about equal to the gap between those two right now and where they were last year.

First the scouting. Harbaugh on his podcast said Shea Patterson has the best release and that he really shines when going off-script. Insiders are spitting out super-foobally platitudes: He’s “a leader.” He “makes plays.” That jives with his seat-of-the-pants film at Ole Miss and the general “Tate Forcier Except Goes to Class” impression we got from that. The insiders are way more bullish. The “he’s a leader” thing got emphasized by all three of my “SOURCES”, with one saying he’s probably the best offensive juice guy Michigan’s had since Harbaugh got here.

Brandon Peters throws the best ball, which is again something we knew. The biggest mover is Dylan McCaffrey, last year’s scout team player of the year, who benefited the most from Herbert in the offseason, and who gets rave reviews about his pocket command.

As for eligibility, Brian discussed it depth earlier this afternoon. The short version is it’s no surprise that Ole Miss opposed these waivers because the only way to avoid significant sanctions is casting Ohio State* and beating the NCAA’s wisdom throw.

*

What it means: The first episode of the Amazon thing was a good reminder that nobody outside of the quarterback room knows the real status of the quarterback battle, so this is guesswork based on lay observations. But nothing can be done to stop the shouting; if every tongue were stilled the noise would still continue—the rocks and stone themselves would start to sing. Unless the NCAA (and again, we’re talking about the NCAA, not some group of responsible, potty-trained adults) buys Ole Miss’s innocence act, Patterson is your presumptive starter. For now.

There’s another clue that this is where the coaches are leaning: one of the points insiders made about is Pep is putting more emphasis on scramble drills. We all noticed last year how, with the notable exception of Grant Perry, Michigan’s receivers would end up standing around after running their routes instead of working back to the QB. If there’s a greater emphasis for the QBs on checking down and improvisation, and a greater emphasis for the WRs on providing those outlets, that kinda sounds like they’re shaping the offense to Shea’s strengths.

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[After THE JUMP: My two offensive lines theory, did you hear about Dwumfour?]