Last season, Jim McElwain — the former Florida head coach — spent his time as Michigan’s wide receivers coach.

McElwain knows the Wolverines. He knows of the team’s play-makers. He knows the maize and blue. Let’s put it that way.

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On this week’s edition of the “View from the Press Box” podcast, McElwain talked about numerous topics. One of which was Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson:

“This will be great for him,” McElwain said of new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ pro-spread offense. “I’ve been fortunate to coach a lot of really good quarterbacks along the way and this guy’s release and the way he’s able to get the ball out is special. Not very many people can get the ball out of their hand and it’s gone (snaps his finger) like that. His decisions, his understanding of the game, he’s a guy that’s got, whatever ‘it’ is, he has it at that position. He’s fearless. He’s competitive. He understands all the things it takes to go get a win. I really like Shea.”

McElwain obviously likes Patterson — he said as much. But he also knows that Patterson is a talented QB who can run what Josh Gattis wants to run. Patterson can both move around and throw the ball, which helps when running a spread offense.

We’ll finally get to see what the former Ole Miss QB can do in the spread with the Wolverines at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 31 in Ann Arbor. The game will be televised on BTN.