The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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38 THE WOLVERINE JANUARY 2018 as an offensive lineman for the Wol- verines (1988-92), has watched him in action. The frequent contributor to The Wolverine and TheWolverine.com said Harbaugh and his team possess a real weapon in Patterson. "There's no doubt, he's a play- maker," Skene said. "The kid can def- initely run really well. As he's doing all that running around, he's flash- ing his eyes to find the next path, and he's keeping his eyes downfield. He's definitely making it up on the run when he has to." When he has more time, he's im- pressive as well, Skene offered. "When the blocking was there, and the routes were there, he's throwing a pretty good football," Skene said. "That's encouraging stuff." Of course, no one expects a corona- tion. Patterson, if eligible in 2018, has to battle Peters and McCaffrey for the starting job, learning Michigan's offense along the way. Skene noted he's anxious to see the true freshman, along with Michigan's current starter, in situations where he's not as limited in the playbook. "I'm anxious to see the shackles taken off Brandon Peters," Skene noted. "I thought he was running a conservative offense when he was in there. He certainly wasn't lighting it up. "We saw him throw a deep ball at Wisconsin for a nice gain, and I think that kid's got a lot more to show. We haven't seen it yet." Skene also insists the QB competi- tion will go right through fall camp 2018, leading up to the Notre Dame game. That's a positive, he stressed. "It's easy for people to just assume, 'Well, this is the guy,'" Skene noted of Patterson. "Here's the great thing about this scenario: We're really go- ing to see the competitive nature of Peters and McCaffrey. That's why you want high levels of talent and competitiveness on your football team. "It's pretty simple. If you want to play, beat the guy out. Work harder. Study more film. Have better prac- tices. Those are all positives. Look at all the championship programs. They have talent throughout their roster and depth everywhere. "Some coaches are giving jobs, say- ing they're not recruiting anybody else or taking transfers, but that's not how you build a champion. I haven't seen Nick Saban do it that way. I haven't seen Urban Meyer do it that way. Those guys are proponents of pretty intense competition to win jobs." An offensive lineman to his bone marrow, Skene insists that individual quarterbacking talents fade into ir- relevance until they receive better protection up front than they have recently. "You're not going to see the true potential of any of these quarterbacks until they have the proper amount of consistent time in the pocket to execute," Skene said. "Maybe if you take a kid like Patterson and his style, he'll thrive more with inconsis- tent pass protection in front of him, as opposed to Peters or other, more traditional pocket passers." But the line, Skene stressed, "has to get better if we're going to get to the Big Ten championship, no matter who the quarterback is." Patterson, meanwhile, will be molded as a Harbaugh quarterback, Skene pointed out. "Coach Harbaugh will probably work on some of the raw throwing mechanics," Skene said. "If Coach Harbaugh is going to run a tradi- tional, pro-style attack, he's going to encourage his quarterback, no mat- ter who it is, to sit in that pocket, move within the pocket, keep his eyes down the field and deliver the football. "The highlight clips I saw of Patter- son from Ole Miss, when the pocket erodes, he's bailing out the backside, doing reverse spins and everything else. I don't know how much of that Coach Harbaugh is going to encour- age. But if the kid is making plays, I don't know how much of it he's go- ing to restrict, either." ANALYSTS BREAK IT DOWN Farrell noted Patterson's intercep- tions (12 in two seasons, including nine in 2017) as an area that will need to be improved. At the same time, he's interested to see what the rising- junior will be able to accomplish un- der Harbaugh's watchful eye. "He's a gunslinger," Farrell said. Patterson saw action in 10 games at Ole Miss the past two years, completing 60.7 percent of his passes for 3,139 yards with 23 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. PHOTO BY BRANDON BROWN