By all accounts, Shea Patterson is excelling in Michigan’s new offense

It’s a new year for Michigan football, with a new offensive coordinator, and a new scheme being installed.

The new scheme is one that Shea Patterson is accustomed to, as it implements a spread attack that is no-huddle.

While there’s verbage and terminology that’s new to Patterson, the basic structure of the offense is one that is catered to his skill-set.

Just take a look at comments this past week from TE Sean McKeon, TE Nick Eubanks, and offensive line coach Ed Warinner.

McKeon: “Shea can do almost anything. He seems pretty comfortable. He looks really good in practice so far. A lot of the QBs have looked pretty good.”

Nick Eubanks:

• “Acing the offense right now. That’s who most of the guys go to if they need help with the concepts of the offense. Yeah, he’s acing it.”
• “Been more vocal in the offense. You can look into his eyes and see that he wants to lead. Offense has no problems following in his footsteps, so we’ve just been going off of him, anything he says and does. That’s what we do.”

Warinner: “We have a quarterback (Patterson) who played in a spread offense – it’s tailor-made for his skill set.”

The fact that players are coming to Patterson for help with concepts in the offense is telling, Patterson is taking command of the new system. Being ‘more vocal’ is a good trait for a quarterback to have. In this case it means that Patterson has confidence and is taking charge, barking out plays and putting everyone on offense in the right spot pre-snap.

The quarterback situation for Michigan is absolutely great at the moment. There are potentially three or four thoroughbreds including Patterson, Dylan McCaffrey, Joe Milton, and Cade McNamara all pushing each other to improve and let it rip in practice with Gattis’ #SpeedInSpace scheme. Good quarterbacks in the stable is undoubtedly keeping Patterson sharp and pushing him to be the unquestioned leader of the offense. If we buy the comments above, it sounds like he’s doing everything he possibly can to take total charge of his unit.

Even Warinner’s comments, calling the offense tailor-made for Patterson’s skill-set should be an encouraging quote for fans and the team alike. A scheme on a given year should adapt to the skill-set of its players, and that’s what is going on in 2019 for the Michigan football team.

We’ll get a good look at how the team is coming into form in April, where there will be a practice open to the public, and the Spring Game the following week on April 13th.