Former Ole Miss starting quarterback Shea Patterson announced today that he is transferring to Michigan, giving the Wolverines the No. 4 overall prospect in the 2016 recruiting class.
He originally debated transferring last offseason following former head coach Hugh Freeze's firing and made the move now after the NCAA sanctions Ole Miss received last week. However, as of now, Patterson is not immediately eligible to play for Michigan next season.
The NCAA only granted immediate eligibility waivers to rising seniors at Ole Miss who can't play in a bowl game in 2018 due to those sanctions. Patterson is a rising junior, so the NCAA has not granted him a waiver since he could've played in a bowl game in 2019 as a senior with the Rebels.
That said, Michigan's compliance department, football staff, and Patterson himself feel confident that his appeal for immediate eligibility will be granted by NCAA. Why is that?
Several Ole Miss players, including Deontay Anderson (who is expected to join Patterson at Michigan), have retained the services of attorney Thomas Mars, who represented former Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt in his lawsuit against the school. In their appeal for immediate eligibility, the players are claiming that Freeze knowingly lied to them about potential infractions and the focus of then-future NCAA investigations, misleading them in the recruiting process.
If their appeal is not granted, Mars is rumored to be threatening a lawsuit against the NCAA.
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The Wolverines expect to have a three-way quarterback battle between Patterson, returning starter Brandon Peters, and redshirt freshman Dylan McCaffrey in the coming offseason with Patterson expected to win the job.
Patterson started the last few games of the 2016 season for Ole Miss and put up eye-popping numbers in the first seven games of this past season, throwing for 2,259 yards with 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
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