The battle for No. 1
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. – Shea Patterson isn’t going to lie.
He wants to be ranked as the top prospect in the 2016 class. It would be beneath him to not fight for it, not scratch and claw and work to be the best. It’s not for bragging rights.
The five-star quarterback who’s No. 3 overall and committed to Ole Miss won’t settle for second-best out of himself and that’s what has made him such a special prospect.
“From a competitive standpoint, I want to be the best player in the country,” Patterson said. “That’s huge to me. At the end of the day, nothing really matters until you play a down of college football but that was one of the goals, to be the No. 1 player in the country.”
Jacob Eason isn’t going to fib, either.
He wants that top spot back – just like Patterson, the Georgia pledge was once No. 1 overall in the class. It’s not bluster or cockiness. It’s just that the Lake Stevens, Wash., five-star quarterback is a competitor and doesn’t want to play second fiddle to anybody.
“I would be lying if it wasn’t something I strived for,” Eason said. “I wouldn’t be devastated if I wasn’t and it wouldn’t destroy my life, but any competitive person wants to be No. 1.
“We don’t really talk about rankings or who’s No. 1, it’s more about college and success. It would be really cool for Georgia to play Ole Miss for the SEC championship and to go head-to-head in that respect.”
Patterson is the top-rated dual-threat quarterback in the class who’s been compared to Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and once to… Vince Young?
“That one really threw me off a little bit,” Patterson said.
There is another comparison he has heard more recently, too, that of former Ole Miss star Eli Manning, now of the New York Giants.
That is a heady comp, one Patterson realizes puts him in special territory even before taking a snap in Oxford.
“Especially going this year and trying to follow his footsteps, him and his dad, Archie, going in there and even being mentioned in the same breath as those guys is a real honor,” Patterson said.
“I try to only control what I can control. It’s not pressure at all. It’s just actually fun to me.”
For Eason, the comparison to Matthew Stafford has been longstanding, first from the old Georgia staff and coach Mark Richt. Now it’s just widely accepted that if the sixth-best prospect in the class needs a comparison it would be to the former Georgia standout who’s now with the Detroit Lions.
Time and again, Eason has been asked about Stafford and whether he sees the similarities. Time and again, the five-star quarterback has said he accepts it, understands it, but also wants to carve out his own legacy.
“I look at it but I kind of push it away because those are pretty high expectations and I’m just trying to go in and be the best that I can,” Eason said. “Ultimately, that’s one of my goals to be like him and to be a great NFL quarterback and college football player but I’m just going to go out and work hard and be the best I can.”
So far this week at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl both Eason and Patterson have been excellent. Good enough for No. 1 overall again is hard to tell this early but the future SEC quarterbacks have delivered.
“I’ve been impressed with both,” Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell said.
“They bring different things to the table so they’re hard to compare head up. They’ve both played to their strengths this week. Eason has been better with his footwork and progressions than I’ve expected. Patterson has been better in the pocket than I’ve expected so they’ve both lived up to the hype.”