"the first phone call came from tennessee last year on signing day," patterson said. "they never gave up. With some other teams, i would talk to the coaches once a week or something like that. Tennessee was different. They would call me almost every day, and they kept rolling with me. They kept sticking by me."
patterson said he was pretty sure he would choose tennessee, but after taking official visits to georgia, lsu and ole miss in the last month, he had some doubt. He had great times on those visits and started to wonder what it would be like at those other schools.
The difference, he said, came after talking to his family.
"my sister really liked tennessee," patterson said. "my family got along with the coaches really well. And i know that if they can get along well, then i can get along with the coaches, too."
patterson had tennessee, lsu, georgia and ole miss hats on the table before choosing the volunteers.