He's a sociology major at USC. His family lived in Sacramento, but he moved south and lived with relatives in order to play football at Los Alamitos. His sports hero is NFL star Warren Sapp (his nickname is "Baby Sapp").

He earned 2000 Prep Star All-American, Super Prep All-Farwest, Prep Star All-Western Region, Long Beach Press-Telegram Best of the West second team, Los Angeles Times All-Orange County, Orange County Register All-Orange County first team, Long Beach Press-Telegram Dream Team first team and All-Sunset League honors as a senior at Los Alamitos (Calif.) High. He posted 94 tackles, 18 tackles for losses and 7 sacks in 2000.

As a 1999 junior, his honors included All-CIF Division VI Defensive MVP, Long Beach Press-Telegram Dream Team second team and All-Sunset League first team. He also was an All-CIF wrestler at Los Alamitos.

Patterson made a nice contribution as a freshman in 2001 while backing up Bernard Riley and then Ryan Nielsen at nose tackle. Overall in 2001 while appearing in 11 games (all but the San Jose State opener), he had 9 tackles, including 5 for losses of 34 yards (with 3 sacks for 32 yards), 2 fumble recoveries and 2 forced fumbles. He tied for fifth in the Pac-10 in fumble recoveries (2) and forced fumbles (2). He had 2 tackles against Washington, California and Utah. His fumble recoveries came against Washington and Oregon State, while his forced fumbles came against Arizona State and California.

As just a sophomore, Patterson started all season on the defensive line in 2002, the first 6 games at nose tackle, then the next 3 at defensive tackle and the final 4 back at nose tackle. Overall in 2002, he had 37 tackles, including 11.5 for losses of 38 yards (with 5.5 sack for 28 yards), plus 4 fumble recoveries (including 1 for a TD) and a deflection. He tied for the Pac-10 lead in fumbles recovered (4). He made the 2002 All-Pac-10 second team.

In his first career start, he had a team-high 8 tackles (1.5 for loss) versus Auburn. He added 5 tackles (including 2 sacks) at Colorado and 4 stops (with a sack) and returned a fumble 3 yards for a TD at Kansas State. He had 2 sacks and recovered a fumble against Oregon State (to set up a USC field goal), while 2 of his 3 tackles at Washington State were for losses. He had 2 tackles and a deflection against Washington, 2 stops at Oregon, 3 (with 1 for a loss) at Stanford and a tackle for a loss against Arizona State. He had a tackle and recovered 2 fumbles (to set up a TD and a field goal) at UCLA, then had a tackle for a loss against Notre Dame. He had 3 tackles against Iowa in the Orange Bowl.

Patterson started for his second season at nose tackle as a junior in 2002 and emerged among the best interior defensive linemen around. Overall in 2003 while starting all 13 games, he had 55 tackles, including 13.5 for losses of 61 yards (including 7 sacks for 40 yards), plus 3 fumble recoveries (with 1 returned for a 52-yard TD against UCLA). His 13.5 tackles for a loss in 2003 were the most by a Trojan defensive tackle since Darrell Russell had 19 in 1996. He was named to the 2003 All-Pac-10 first team. He had 7 tackles versus Auburn (to earn Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week honors) and BYU, 6 against UCLA, 5 at California (2 for losses) and Arizona State (2.5 for losses), and 4 against Stanford, Washington State and Oregon State (with 1.5 for losses). He had 2 sacks at Notre Dame. Besides his scoring fumble return against UCLA, he also recovered fumbles against California and Stanford (running 16 yards with it). He won USC's Co-Lifter of the Year award.

The hard-to-block Patterson, an All-American candidate who is one of the nation's premier nose tackles, returns for his third season as the starter as a senior in 2004.

He was selected with the 31st overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft out of the University of Southern California. Mike started the 2005 season as 2nd string, but started his first ever NFL game on September 25, 2005 when DT Darwin Walker was injured. When Walker returned to the lineup 4 games later, Mike went back to second string. On December 11, 2005, Mike was moved permanently to the starting LDT position and remains there. In 2005, Mike Patterson was regarded as one of the best rookie defensive linemen in the NFL. He recorded the most tackles (66) in the season out of all the Eagles' defensive line and he had more sacks (3.5) than any other Eagle's DT or rookie DT in the NFL.