ANN ARBOR -- Shea Patterson will freely admit the first few weeks of spring practice this year didn’t go smoothly.

There were mistakes. He and the rest of his Michigan teammates were still trying to learn.

Now, about a month later, Patterson stood in front of reporters on Saturday with a sense of confidence about the new offensive scheme put in place by first-year coordinator Josh Gattis.

“I’m just out there thinking less,” Patterson said after Michigan’s open-to-the-public spring game. “I think the game’s slowed down a little bit. I’m taking it one play at a time, and playmakers are making plays.”

Patterson, who enters his senior season, said he’s now on his sixth offensive coordinator in the last six years, a stretch that includes his high school days. In other words, he’s been immersed in nearly every type of scheme out there.

This one, he feels, fits his skill set the best. Michigan’s new up-tempo, no-huddle offense was on display Saturday as Patterson and the other quarterbacks were relayed play calls from the sideline and operated purely out of the shotgun.

RPO, or “run-pass option,” a term we heard a little about this time last year when it came to Michigan’s offense, is now in full affect. Players say nearly half of the passes made on Saturday had some sort of RPO attached to it.

“It just gives Shea options,” tight end Sean McKeon said. "We’re never in a bad look with an RPO. If they stop the run and try to blitz, the throw’s open. If they try and cover the throw, then the run’s open.

“I think that’s the biggest difference.”

Helping matters this spring is the experience returning up front. Michigan has four of its five starters along the offensive line back, and one with starting experience in the mix for the starting right-tackle spot.

Then, there’s the talent and experience at receiver, too. Donovan Peoples-Jones and Nico Collins, two of Michigan’s most productive pass catchers in 2018, expect to be healthy this fall, and joining them are an array of speedy, situational-type options. Ronnie Bell, Oliver Martin, Tarik Black, potentially even freshman Mike Sainristil, will be counted on.

We saw what that might look like this fall on Saturday, with plenty of crossing routes and chances taken down the field. Bell and Martin had no trouble breaking a defender and getting open. Now it will be up to Patterson to hit them.

“All the playmakers around me, all the different ways we can get to where we want,” Patterson said, when asked what he likes best about the new system. “I think it’s night and day. We’re going to carry over some stuff from last year, but as far as similarities, I think there’s very, very few of them.

"It’s going to be fun.”