When Chad Kelly went down with a season-ending injury, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze had a tough decision to make: whether to remove the redshirt from true freshman quarterback Shea Patterson.
Freeze planned to let Patterson sit the season out behind Kelly, the consensus preseason All-SEC first-team quarterback, then take the reins in 2017. But that process sped up, with Freeze citing the desire to give his team the “best chance to win.” That meant starting Patterson, the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the 2016 ESPN 300.
The decision paid off, as Patterson threw for a school freshman-record 338 yards in a 29-28 comeback win at then-No.