COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- From the time Shea Patterson was a freshman in high school, carving up defenses at Hidalgo High in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze recruited him.
Patterson’s journey has taken him a few places since then -- to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he led Calvary Baptist to two state championships, and to Bradenton, Florida, where Patterson entered the football factory known as IMG Academy and engineered it to an undefeated season before signing with Ole Miss -- but as the true freshman quarterback made his collegiate debut Saturday night, that journey fittingly returned to the Lone Star State.