Daily Brews: Analyst says Shea Patterson ‘played confidently’ last week for first time

Former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy is now a college football analyst and was on the television call for ABC last week in Michigan’s game against Illinois. He shared his thoughts this week on “The First Team” on SiriusXM satellite radio and saw a different signal-caller than the one we have seen all year.

“Watching Michigan throughout the course of the week I was unimpressed with Patterson,” McElroy said. “I didn’t think he did a great job of going through his progressions. I think he’s a better improviser than he is a stay in the pocket type of player. I don’t think that’s his strength. I think he’s better running around and creating on his own. He hasn’t really been asked to do that at Michigan.”

One play in particular stuck out the most to him that backs up his comments.

“They had a touchdown against Illinois on a corner route, and that was an advanced-level RPO called a quarterback wrap, and that’s an advanced level RPO that really puts stress on a defense,” McElroy said. “They did the same thing later in the game on a stack play that’s supposed to be a run, but if you get the ideal look you can throw it.

“Shea got the ideal look, and he hit Donovan Peoples-Jones for a touchdown.”

Confidence has been called into question all year for the Michigan quarterback and despite cries from the fans that it was time to be benched, McElroy saw a player starting to flash some of the fire that we’ve seen when the team is actually firing on all cylinders.

“I think for the first time this year Shea played confidently,” McElroy said. “He did a nice job against Illinois, and regained that moxie we’ve seen from him at times over the years. Because if he had struggled in this game I think they would’ve thought it was time to see what Dylan McCaffrey can do.”

As far as how the quarterbacks at Michigan break down, McElroy said that he made his way down to the field before the game and believes that Patterson possesses the most arm talent on the team even if Dylan McCaffrey might be ready to play. The key is the confidence.

“Shea is their best thrower right now, while McCaffrey does a lot of nice things athletically with his legs,” McElroy said. “But I think if Shea plays confidently he can regain his standing. Because (on film) I saw a guy who plays scared. Who didn’t play confidently. At Ole Miss he was like Baker Mayfield confident. Now he’s not, and he’s got to get that back.”

That’s all fine and good, but now we need to see it on the road in a hostile environment, which is the situation Patterson and the Wolverines find themselves in at Penn State on Saturday.

Daxton Hill explains flip from Michigan to Alabama... back to Michigan

Former five-star recruit Daxton Hill was the gem of the 2019 recruiting class for Michigan football, but they nearly did not have him around. After initially committing to play for Jim Harbaugh, Hill flipped to Alabama at one point last season after a rough end to the year for Michigan.

Now, Hill is explaining why that happened and what led him back to Michigan.

“Really just – they were hard on me,” Hill said. “I really didn’t know where my head was at at that time. That’s what happened right there.”

So why did he ultimately choose to come back? It’s simple, and it has to do with the relationships he had built with the staff and players.

“Really just how I felt with everybody – the coaching staff, the players,” Hill said. “And really just the school overall. That’s the biggest reason why.”

Hill’s role at safety has started to expand in recent weeks and the true freshman continues to ascend for Michigan with his head coach revealing a few weeks ago that he has overtaken everyone else to be the team’s starting nickel defensive back in addition to his duties on special teams.

Other Brews

• There’s been an adjustment to your college football viewing schedule this week. With Game 4 of the ALCS being postponed on Wednesday and Game 5 moved to 7:08 p.m. on Friday night, that game will now be broadcast on Fox Sports 1, which was originally set to broadcast Ohio State at Northwestern on Friday night. Because Fox cannot move WWE Smackdown from the schedule, OSU-NW will now be played on Big Ten Network.
• An Alabama freshman that was arrested for calling in a bomb threat to Tiger Stadium at LSU has cited a bet as the cause for his actions.
• Don’t forget that five-star 2020 forward Isaiah Todd makes his college decision today between Michigan and Kansas. Here’s everything you need to know in our decision primer.