The latest bowl projections from national opinions are still giving Ole Miss a sliver of bowl hopes.

News that Shea Patterson is starting Saturday at Texas A&M just rekindled more hope than that.

Just when you thought the Rebels had tumbled about as far away from expectations as humanly possible, Kentucky and South Carolina are going to bowls, and Ole Miss may not. With the redshirt ripped off the five-star recruit, maybe so.

The latest blow – a season-ending injury to quarterback Chad Kelly – has done Ole Miss in from national opinions. Once with a chance to win the right games in a tough schedule and make a New Year’s Six game, times have dramatically changed. No Liberty, Texas, Belk or even Birmingham?

Not everyone has that low of an opinion of the walking-wounded Rebels. USA Today thinks Ole Miss has a shot at the Independence Bowl against Wake Forest. CBS think Birmingham vs. Tulsa is possible. That’s all under the assumption that Jason Pellerin was to be the quarterback to finish out a waning season.

The Patterson news changes everything. It’s not a knock on Pellerin. The runner has a spot in the Ole Miss offense. Patterson, though, can make the offense do the only thing it is built to do — fly. Patterson was the top-ranked pro-style passer in the country last season.

The plan all along was to redshirt him and watch Kelly carry the team to another New Year’s Six bowl. A combination of a tough schedule, an inability to finish and injuries all over have changed the plan.

Vegas wasn’t on board that Ole Miss’ fifth win can come Saturday at Texas A&M. It has since gone down to 10, but the Rebels opened as a 21-point underdog in College Station. Watching the line against the Patterson news will be interesting. A win there would have been huge under any circumstance. It means just as much to simply get the Rebels off the mat as it would have to propel them into the Playoff.

Ole Miss is the top passing offense in the SEC at 316 yards per game. That was about to change. Now, it may not.

But more important than any of those stats is finishing strong. A terrible bowl is a bowl, and Ole Miss needs it. Recruiting is already struggling under the eye of the NCAA investigation and the downfall of the season.

Patterson can turn it all around. He’s being thrown into the fire and behind a throw-together offensive line. His talent can handle it. He looked SEC-ready in high school and has watched the SEC’s top passer since he arrived on campus. He inherits arguably the most dangerous receiving corps in America, no doubt the best tight end in Evan Engram.

The defense is still going to have to play better, but the offensive cupboard is full for Patterson.

Despite the offensive line that seems to look different each week and a quarterback no one thought they would see until 2017, there is still a chance to end on a higher note than most had come to expect of the season. If Patterson can live up to his arm in his first three career starts, the season can end anew and recruits can see exactly what they would be joining.

Nationally, experts were still predicting a bowl. In state, fans were predicting a definite loss Saturday and very possibly a loss the following week at Vanderbilt. The Egg Bowl at Mississippi State was once considered a lock. With Nick Fitzgerald finding his stride in Starkville, a lot of fans were writing that one off, too.

The atmosphere in Oxford had gone from excitement to “hurry up and end.” That has changed, and Patterson hasn’t even taken a snap.

Beating Mississippi State may still be the only path to a bowl. Yes, it will be a terrible bowl. But if Patterson is the star he is expected to be and Ole Miss wins the Egg Bowl and an actual bowl, the atmosphere around Ole Miss will be completely different than it was Friday morning.