The long, drawn out, extremely tedious eligibility saga of quarterback Shea Patterson is now over! Michigan fans can rejoice because they now have their blue chip signal caller officially cleared to play this fall. Reports had surfaced last night that this might be coming, and the official announcement came in the traditional, industry standard Friday at 5 pm when everyone has already checked out for the weekend news dump.
The University of Mississippi QB and the U of M then sent out a joint statement that was so dull and boring that I won’t dare burden you with citing it.
It was clearly written by a team of lawyers trying to be as uninteresting and corporate as possible, and it consisted of nothing but NCAA buzzwords. Fitting, as the whole drama itself wasn’t really about anything more than bureaucracy and paper pushing.
Alas the Toledo native has had his waiver request granted; at long last. Patterson totally changes the entire complexion of Michigan’s season because, for the first time under Jim Harbaugh, they will have a QB with actual bonafides. It’s ironic how the QB play has been so poor during the Harbaugh regime when the coach himself is such an accomplished former quarterback.
However, Shea is the real deal. He’s projected as a top five overall pick in next year’s NFL Draft, and some experts could see him going #1 overall. Go here to see where we have him in our latest 2019 NFL mock draft.
An hour after the joint statement was sent out by Michigan and Mississippi, U of M sent out a statement with these quotes attributed to Shea Patterson.
“There are a lot of people who worked really hard to help make this transfer process a success. I want to thank Coach Harbaugh, the University of Michigan and the NCAA for allowing me to continue my education and football career at one of the best universities in the country.
“A special thanks to Michigan’s Compliance Staff and to Tom Mars for his personal guidance for me and my family during this time. With this decision behind us, my family and I are fully focused on the upcoming season. My teammates and I are always committed to competing at the highest level and winning championships. Go Blue!”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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