ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson hasn't decided whether he'll return for his senior year, but he will play in the Peach Bowl.
Patterson made the declaration following U-M's 2018 Awards Show Sunday, saying he hadn't though about the decision — only the Dec. 29 game against Florida.
"I'll meet with Coach [Jim] Harbaugh pretty soon, maybe after the bowl game, and have a talk with him," Patterson, Michigan's Offensive Player of the Year, said. "I'll talk it over with my family."
Fifth-year senior Chase Winovich said he would also play in the Peach Bowl, citing "unfinished business." Junior defensive end Rashan Gary has already declared for the draft and said he wouldn't play, and several others are thought to be considering sitting out.
Cornerbacks Lavert Hill and David Long are both among the top 10 corners available in many projections, while junior linebacker Devin Bush Jr., U-M's Defensive Player of the Year, is a potential first round pick. He was banged up against Ohio State, but Harbaugh said he was healing.
“He’s rehabbing and coming along good,” Harbaugh said.
Bush told the Big Ten Network last week he wanted to play in the bowl game, but there have since been rumblings he'll sit it out.
Harbaugh wouldn't comment when asked about individual players.
"I'll let them make that decision or announcement. I don't make announcements concerning that," he said.
Patterson, meanwhile, was gung-ho about the game.
"I've had the most fun ever in my football career so far, suiting up here at Michigan," Patterson said. "It's been such an honor to do it. I think there's a lot more to be done. But right now I'm just so excited to try to get one more win, possibly finish in the top five in the country. I think that would be big for us.
Junior guard Ben Bredeson said last week he expected Patterson to follow his lead and return to Michigan. Winovich, Patterson's roommate, made his own decision a year ago and said it was a relatively easy one for him.
"I'm going to lobby for Shea Patterson to make the best decision for Shea Patterson," Winovich said. "At the end of the day, Shea knows as much as I do how great this university is."
Patterson threw for 2,364 yards, 21 touchdowns and five interceptions this season, completing 65.1 percent of his passes. He left late in the Ohio State game with a reported knee bruise but said he'd be 100 percent against the Gators.
NOTES
• The Peach Bowl is a sellout, though both Michigan and Florida still need to sell their allotments. The sellout includes 3,500 expandable seats in luxurious Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Michigan A.D. Warde Manuel said 7,500 of U-M's 12,500 allotment were sold in the first 3.5 days.
“I'm very happy with our fans and know they’ll be there full throttle for us,” Manuel said.
• Winovich injured his back against Indiana, he admitted Sunday.
“So when I was on the ground, I was getting up a little slow,” Winovich said. “I was laughing in my head, going: ‘Holy heck, that was a good hit!’ because I didn’t see him coming from the side. When I was headfirst in the ground, he had jumped on my back and it did like a cracking [sound]."
He made the sound on Patterson's request.
"That’s all I heard. My back started spasming and locked up," he said. "If you could have seen my face, I was kind of like in pain. I was immobilized for my back, but that settled down. That’s why I was able to walk off the field. They were worried it might have been my spine. It came back and my spine was good. Thank you to whoever helped me dodge those bullets upstairs!
“Essentially it was a back injury [involving the muscles]."
It came back in the Ohio State game, but he played through it.
"It’s football. You have to deal with injuries all the time," he said. "You've got to sometimes strap your boots up and get to work, so that’s what we did.”
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