In early November of 2016, Hugh Freeze had a program-shifting decision to make.
Chad Kelly had just torn his ACL, leaving Ole Miss without its star quarterback at a time when it needed to win two of its last three games to become bowl eligible. The obvious replacement was five-star true freshman Shea Patterson, the country’s top quarterback prospect. The problem was that Freeze had entered the season with every intention of redshirting Patterson and preserving a year of eligibility for his QB of the future. NCAA rules dictated that the moment Patterson entered a game, his four-year eligibility clock would start ticking.