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Ole Miss opposed junior quarterback Shea Patterson’s immediate eligibility request out of ‘pure spite,’ per his attorney.
That’s slowed the process for the transfer considerably, and Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh didn’t want to comment on the situation Wednesday other than to say Patterson had been impressive.
“Shea is practicing, and practicing very well,” Harbaugh said. “He’s going about his business and taking care of it nicely. He's controlling the things he can control, and we are treating it the same way as a coaching staff and a team.”
Ole Miss is objecting to an NCAA waiver claim, CBS reported Monday, based on Patterson’s "assessment of the conditions within the program" that led to his transfer to Michigan. They had the option of saying nothing or objecting and Patterson’s attorney, Thomas Mars, told the Detroit News it didn't surprise him at all based on his dealings with the school.
"We would not oppose a waiver of the year in residence requirement based on a legitimate reason for any student-athlete who wants to transfer from Ole Miss,” the school’s Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics, Ross Bjork, said in a release. “With the waiver in question, the way it was written, we had no choice but to respond the way we did.
“With anyone who leaves our program, we wish them the best academically and athletically. At this point, it's not really our matter; it's an NCAA and Michigan matter."
Patterson claimed he was misled by head coach Hugh Freeze and others as to the severity of potential NCAA sanctions.
“There’s no reason to put lipstick on this pig,” Mars told USA TODAY SPORTS on Tuesday. “I’m convinced that ‘doing the right thing’ never even crossed anyone’s mind in Oxford when the decision-makers at Ole Miss were deciding what to say to the NCAA about Michigan’s request to allow Shea to be under center next season.”
Per the Detroit News, Mars sifted through text messages, phone logs and interviews to uncover how Freeze and the athletic department launched a plan to mislead media and football recruits — including Patterson — telling them the bulk of the violations involved women’s basketball and track and that former coach Houston Nutt was responsible for issues regarding the football program.
“It appears that whoever wrote Ole Miss’s response to Michigan’s waiver request wasn’t aware that Ole Miss publicly apologized to Houston Nutt last October for making misleading statements to the sports media about the NCAA case,” Mars said. “There was no mention of the public apology in Ole Miss’s response.
“What’s more, the misleading statements to the sports media that Ole Miss publicly apologized for six months ago were the same misleading statements that Shea and a dozen other players and their parents say Ole Miss was telling them at the same time — both in person and over the phone.”
Mars told the Detroit Free Press he’d never been more confident his client would be cleared to play this fall.
"I have never believed that the odds of Shea getting a waiver were any less than 75 percent. And there have been times I thought they were a lot higher," Mars told the Free Press on Tuesday. "And, frankly, right now I don't think my confidence level has been any higher.
"There are things that happen that cause you to change your confidence level, adjust it accordingly. That's part of the process. But because of some recent events that are part of this process, my confidence about Shea being under center for Michigan this fall is at an all-time high."
He speculated that the NCAA would rule on Patterson’s case within two weeks.
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