Ole Miss’ quarterback of the future will soon be on campus for good.

Shea Patterson put a bow on his high school career with an MVP performance in the U.S. Army All-American Game last Saturday and will move to Oxford sometime this week before starting classes at Ole Miss, his father, Sean Patterson Sr., said.

The first day of the spring semester is next Monday.

“We’re real excited for him,” Sean Sr. said. “He’s prepared.”

Shea, a consensus five-star prospect, spent this past weekend in Oxford with his family finalizing the details of his early enrollment and spending time with Shea’s older brother, Sean Jr., who’s on the Rebels’ staff as an associate director of recruiting operations. He’s been committed to Ole Miss since February.

“I’ve been through recruiting with my son (Sean Jr.) and daughters,” Sean Sr. said. “Sometimes they didn’t quite get to go to the school they might’ve wanted to go to, but Shea’s situation, he’s where he wants to be. That makes it so much more rewarding to watch him be happy.”

Patterson, who played his senior year at IMG Academy after spending the first couple of seasons of his prep career at Calvary Baptist Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana, will be one of four scholarship quarterbacks going through spring practice. That includes incumbent starter Chad Kelly, who announced last week he was returning for his senior season after accounting for more than 4,500 total yards and 41 touchdowns in his first season at Ole Miss.

Sean Sr. said he hasn’t asked the coaching staff what that means for Shea’s first year on campus, but he knows “Shea is going to come in, compete and do whatever he has to do to help the team win.”

“If that’s push the starter, start if he can or study as hard as he can to make sure he’s making other guys better practicing against them, he’s going to do what he has to do,” Sean Sr. added. “When it’s his time, when it’s his turn or whenever they feel he’s ready, he’ll be ready.”

Consensus No. 1
Shea put his skills on display for a national television audience last weekend in an Army game quarterback showdown with Georgia five-star commit Jacob Eason, who quarterbacked the East squad. Patterson got the start for the West team and went 6 of 9 for 90 yards and two touchdowns while splitting time with three other signal callers in the West’s 37-9 win.

Shea’s performance bumped him to the nation’s No. 1 quarterback prospect by all the major recruiting services in their final set of prospect rankings. He’s ranked as the No. 4 overall prep recruit in the country by Scout.com and 247Sports.com and No. 3 by Rivals.com.

“He competes on every ball thrown,” Sean Sr. said. “He competes on every handoff, every fake. Every time he’s working out, he’s trying to get better. He doesn’t have to tell me. I already know what he’s trying to do.”