Michigan Wolverines Football: Shea Patterson Ready For His First Bowl
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Michigan junior quarterback Shea Patterson has never played in a bowl game.
In his first season at Ole Miss, the Rebels went 5-7 and missed out on a chance to go to a bowl. In his sophomore season, Ole Miss was not eligible to go to a bowl due to NCAA violations.
Patterson was done with football in November the first two years, but this year, his season has been extended until December 29 when he’ll make his bowl debut against the Florida Gators in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Patterson said. “I’ve had a great time all week. It’s my first bowl week, so it’s obviously been exciting.”
While Patterson hadn’t been to a bowl game before this season, it was the bare minimum expectation for his junior season. The Wolverines wanted more, but Patterson said he’s happy with the opportunity to play in the Peach Bowl.
“Our assumption after that Notre Dame game, we kind of got in a groove and we had the mindset, we’d go to Indy and play for the big one and go to the playoff,” Patterson said. “I’m happy with the spot we’re in. We’re in a New Year’s Six bowl and we have the opportunity to play one more game and get an eleventh win for our program.”
An 11-win season still isn’t all that Patterson wanted.
“We definitely didn’t meet our expectations,” Patterson said. “Our expectations were to go out there and beat Notre Dame and run the table the rest of the season. I think we did that until the last game of the season."
“Obviously losing that first one and the last one were far from it. We can just use that as fuel going into next year to when we get into types of situations, those big games, you know it comes down how we’re going to handle adversity. It takes one play to change the whole game.”
With raised expectations, Michigan is looking to beat Florida once again in a bowl game. During the practices leading up to the game, Patterson said running back Christian Turner has looked good along with freshman wide receiver Ronnie Bell. Turner could have a bigger role against Florida with senior running back Karan Higdon sitting out the game.
The Wolverines will be going up against a familiar foe for Patterson. The Gators are coached by Dan Mullen who was at Mississippi State when Patterson was at Ole Miss. Patterson also is friends with Florida’s redshirt junior wide receiver Van Jefferson who also transferred from Ole Miss.
“Having gone through it, I understand what he went through with the whole transfer process and the stuff that we went through at Ole Miss,” Patterson said. “I’m so excited to see him back out there doing what he loves.”
Florida’s defense will pose a lot of challenges for Patterson.
“They can cover ground quickly,” Patterson said. “Even if they do get out of position, they have a lot of guys that can recover quickly. That front seven they have is no joke and I think it’s one of the best, if not the best, we’ve played all year. We just have to come ready.”
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