DESTIN, Fla. -- Shea Patterson didn't sign up for any of this.
It was hard enough for the Ole Miss quarterback to consider burning a redshirt as a true freshman in 2016 to rescue what was left of a 5-7 season. It was quite another to start 2017 with diminished hopes.
You see, Ole Miss could go 12-0 this season and it might not qualify as improvement. Before a ball is snapped, the Rebels know they can't win the SEC. The school self-imposed a bowl ban earlier this year in hopes of mitigating further penalties amidst an embarrassing major infractions investigation.
Patterson came to Oxford, Mississippi, as a five-star, top-five overall recruit in the Class of 2016, per the 247Sports Composite. With what little certainty there is at Ole Miss these days, two years in, Patterson may have little to play for besides pride.
"Ourselves and our pride, the city of Oxford and our fans," Patterson said during a break at the Steve Clarkson Quarterback Retreat in Coronado, California. "We can be the people's champions."
Eternal optimist Hugh Freeze even wondered "what joy should look like amidst a trying time."
"I'm looking forward to [the bowl ban] in a weird kind of way," Ole Miss' coach added Tuesday during the SEC spring meetings. "I have the opportunity to really model for a group of young men how real life can be like when you're faced something you didn't ask for."
Certainly that's not what Freeze was selling during his quarterback's recruitment. Patterson was part of the program's best recruiting run in … forever. When Patterson enrolled early in January 2016, the Rebels had won 19 combined games in the previous two seasons and advnced to a pair of New Year's Six bowls.
That same month, Ole Miss was handed its initial notice of allegations from the NCAA.
"It's hard enough to play in this conference," Patterson said of the current cloud hanging over the program, "let alone all this other stuff."
Now he gets up before 5 a.m. three times a week to throw with receivers before official offseason workouts begin at 6 a.m. Where does he get the motivation?
"It kind of sucks we're not going to a bowl game," Patterson said. "… I still get a chance to win 12 games this year."
In theory, yes. More realistically, the biggest win for Ole Miss football lately has been limited to 140 characters. Patterson tweeted his intention to stay after an amended -- more damaging -- notice of allegations dropped in February.
In the document, which hasn't yet been revealed publicly, the school says it was charged with an expanded 21 violations.
Current college quarterback culture dictates Patterson should at least be weighing his options.
"I'm pretty sure, from the outside looking in, there was a lot of speculation," he said. "I think it was important for me to get out there and let the fans know I'm their quarterback.
"For us at Ole Miss, we have the talent, we have the coaching. The sky is the limit for us. I think we control our own destiny. I think we can go as far as we want to go."
Wait, that's exactly what won't happen at Ole Miss. Even if it "wins" the SEC West, it can't play in the SEC Championship Game. The season ends one way or another for the Rebels on Nov. 23 at Mississippi State.
That Thanksgiving night, half of Patterson's eligibility will have been used. After Freeze made the decision to pull Patterson's redshirt, Ole Miss went 1-2 down the stretch and missed a bowl for the first time since 2011.
Will the move be worth it? In fact, it's worth wondering what Patterson will do if Ole Miss is slapped with a further bowl ban in 2018.
"For a team and a university to self-impose a bowl ban I think that's just enough," the quarterback said, "but if something else like that happens, that's another story."
Patterson's tweet was surely a relief to worried fans. The reason for it is beyond concerning. The amended notice contains those new serious allegations, pointing to Freeze's lack of oversight.
For now, a short history of recent bowl bans isn't encouraging.
USC was given a two-year bowl game and lost 30 scholarships in 2010 just for the actions of one player, Reggie Bush. Ole Miss' case is arguably more widespread involving more assistants and blame placed on Freeze.
Penn State was given a four-year bowl ban in 2012, later cut in half, as a result of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. You shouldn't have to be reminded about the national upheaval that caused.
Former coach Jim Tressel lied to the NCAA, forcing Ohio State to stay home despite a 12-0 regular-season record in 2012.
The best/worst example of a bowl ban in the SEC might be Auburn in 1993. After an 11-0 season, the Tigers were kept out of a national title shot.
Freeze says he has reached out to some "NASCAR guys," FedEx CEO Fred Smith and former Baylor acting coach Jim Grobe for advice regarding his current situation.
As for Terry Bowden, the coach of that '93 Auburn team, "I don't know him personally but I'm quite confident he'd be open to it."
Meanwhile, the lawyer of former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt wants an apology for his client. Thomas Mars suggested some Ole Miss sources were a bit too aggressive in placing blame on Nutt for the NCAA wrongdoing.
A more sordid history could be in the making. Since August 2013, an NCAA bylaw has dictated a coach negligent of oversight of his program could be suspended for up to a year. If it happened, Freeze would be the first in FBS.
In fact, it is believed Freeze is the first FBS coach ever charged with violating the so-called "coaches' responsibility" bylaw.
I wrote about it in March using John Calipari and Pete Carroll as examples. They were never named in their schools' infractions cases (UMass/Memphis basketball and USC football, respectively). But under the current bylaw, the NCAA could have concluded they should have known about wrongdoing.
Like the coaches above, Freeze was not specifically named, according to the school in the latest amended notice. However …
"It is presumed [Freeze] is responsible because of the actions of his staff," Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork said in a video released in February.
Ole Miss is contesting the allegation against its coach.
"Have you looked at how many coaches have been charged with failure to monitor and what has happened to them?" Freeze asked on Tuesday. "… I don't know of any that have lost their jobs."
If getting fired is the standard to avoid, Freeze has a point. But who knew it would come to this -- a comparison to Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, who was suspended for nine games in 2015? Louisville's Rick Pitino might be the latest basketball coach to be sent to the sidelines in the distasteful hookers scandal.
Ole Miss seems to have doubled down on the support of its coach even if it means him missing a few games. In that sense, Freeze's best leverage for continued employment is his winning percentage -- .609. If that number holds, Freeze would be the winningest coach at Ole Miss in at least 44 years.
That's what Shea Patterson signed up for 17 months ago when he placed his football faith in a faith-based coach.
"My faith has not changed," Patterson said. "It's a blessing playing for him."