The Wolverine

October 2018

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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OCTOBER 2018 THE WOLVERINE 25 a great play. That wasn't coaching … "The throw to Donovan was really good. That wasn't his first read. That was a long throw from one sideline all the way to the back corner of the end zone. That one required some touch on it, but it had to get up and down quick before Donovan got out of bounds. That's pretty high-level stuff." Michigan's defense sees a difference, facing Patterson in practice. "They've grown a lot as a unit, stick- ing together," junior linebacker Devin Bush Jr. said. "Shea coming in and be- ing the person he is also created that bond. Our offense this year is a lot closer and a lot more on the same page than they were last year." "With him, the play isn't over," sophomore wideout Nico Collins of- fered. "You're always trying to find ways to get open. Scramble drill — just find the open spot, and he'll hit us. "When you run a deep ball with him, it's not really over. He'll always scramble out. He's a really explosive quarterback. He can find ways to get the ball to you and find ways to make plays." THE LONG WAY HOME A long-time Michigan fan, Sean Sr. delights in seeing his son happy and in a winged helmet. He knows, though, without the persistence he's witnessed over and over again, it would never have happened. Shea Patterson always wanted to win, and when there were individual awards to be had, he wanted those, too. His dad recalled one of their fa- vorite shared memories, at the Nike- sponsored camp, The Opening, when Shea was a senior in high school. "The first two days, his team was just not getting it done," Sean Sr. noted. "They were a bunch of individuals, and he was getting limited reps, like the other quarterbacks. He was sup- posed to be the No. 1 guy going in, and he's with all these guys. "The night before the last day, I went over to his hotel. He didn't have tears, but I could tell he was so frustrated. "He says, 'Dad, do I have a chance?' I'm always honest with my kids. I said, 'Shea, if this was a horse race, you'd be a long shot. You'd be a 99-1 guy.'" He son paused, as the explanation sunk in. Sean Sr. continued: "He goes, 'But, I have a chance though, right? I have a chance.' I said, 'Yeah, you've got a chance.' "He went out there and just had an unbelievable day. His team won the championship, and he won the MVP. He ran over, gave me a big hug, told me how much he loved me and said, 'I told you I had a chance!'" Patterson has a chance again — a big one. He felt it, the first time running out of the Michigan Stadium tunnel. Harbaugh felt it along with him. "I've had several discussions with him about running out of the tunnel," Harbaugh said. "From our very first conversation and then over the last months, he keeps bringing that up. First time in the stadium for practice, he looked up and pointed up where he saw his first game. "I was running behind him running out of the tunnel, I wanted to see what he was going to do. He touched the banner and looked like he did a little reverse dunk — a little sugar on the flakes going up to touch the banner. That was good. I wanted to see that. It's awesome when it means some- thing to somebody." It means plenty, to all the Pattersons. "I've watched Rick Leach, Elvis Grbac, Tom Brady, Chad Henne," Sean Sr. mused. "I've watched all these guys, and here is Shea, playing quar- terback at Michigan. "It's a dream. Sometimes you don't think dreams come true, because it's always for somebody else. It actually happened." ❏ Patterson Can Make His Mark Among Harbaugh QBs Jim Harbaugh got off to a flying start with quarterbacks in Ann Arbor, prior to last year's injury-plagued shuffle. The Wolverines, first with a transfer then with a QB not highly recruited, showed strong production. Jake Rudock came from Iowa as a grad transfer and threw for more than 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2015 — just the second campaign in school history that an individual passer eclipsed 3,000 yards through the air. Wilton Speight became a Davey O'Brien Quarterback Award semifinalist, leading a 40-point- per-game offense. Patterson has a chance to become Harbaugh's most productive quarterback yet at Michigan. Here's what he must beat: Jake Rudock, 2015: 3,017 yards, 20 touchdowns, 64.0 completion percentage, nine interceptions. Wilton Speight, 2016: 2,538 yards, 18 touchdowns, 61.6 completion percent- age, seven interceptions. John O'Korn, 2017: 973 yards, two touchdowns, 53.5 completion percentage, six interceptions. — John Borton Patterson has had a pair of three-touchdown pass games in the first three contests this year. Michigan has had just three such perfor- mances over the past two seasons. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL

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