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https://theathletic.com/1557828/2020...tech-memories/
Precocious and preturnatural: The first impressions of Patrick Mahomes
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On the first Sunday in February, just a few months after his 24th birthday, Patrick Mahomes will lead the Kansas City Chiefs into the Super Bowl. As remarkable as Mahomes has been in the NFL — passing for 5,000 yards in his first year starting, winning the MVP award at age 23, setting the NFL record for passing yards in a player’s first 25 games at age 24 — folks from his alma mater Texas Tech aren’t the least bit surprised. They saw his amazing exploits at an even younger age.
To get a better sense of Mahomes Magic, The Athletic asked his former coaches and teammates at Tech to fill in the blank to one basic question:
When did you know Patrick Mahomes was special?
Trey Haverty, SMU safeties coach, former Texas Tech safeties/OLB coach and the assistant who recruited Mahomes to Tech: I was on the sidelines of the 2013 Texas state playoff game between Mahomes’ Whitehouse team and Mesquite Poteet. He threw for like 600 yards in a loss. Poteet had DeAndre McNeal and Malik Jefferson, who were both national top-100 recruits. Poteet had talent. Patrick just made plays all game just being him. He spun off Malik Jefferson trying to sack him four times and threw touchdown passes. He scored inside of a minute in each half, and I think threw five touchdowns and ran for two more touchdowns.
Mike Jinks, USC running backs coach, former Texas Tech running backs coach: All of that throwing it right handed and then with his left hand stuff, and those no-look passes, well, it all pales to in comparison what that boy can do with a ping pong paddle in his hand. The kid is just good at everything he does. We had a little ping pong tournament to break the monotony of training camp his freshman year, and he put on a show. He beat everybody. It was the shots that he pulled out of his ass. The more I thought about it, I was like, “Well, all of those baseball clubhouses he grew up around.” But you just knew there was something different about this kid.
Eric Morris, University of Incarnate Word head coach, former offensive coordinator at Texas Tech: I think it was the first time we went live in his freshman year. We were doing a two-minute drill and there were people around him. You can’t really tell with people like him and Johnny Manziel until it’s a game, because you never really hit the quarterback in practice. The defense always says he gets sacked. So he’s in with the 2s or maybe with the 3s. Well, something happened, the pocket broke down and he’s with terrible people. He scrambles left and he’s running left as fast as he can. And while he’s still running, he flips his hips, like he does now, and everybody sees he’s going the wrong way running and he flips it.
Kliff (Kingsbury) and I sat there for like 10 minutes after, rewinding it and watching it and rewinding it, looking at every angle. “Holy shit that ball just went like 50 yards!” The physics of it just to whip that ball 50-some yards to a backside post on a scramble drill for a touchdown — holy shit that shouldn’t be possible. The receiver was across the field to the right, like it was almost physically impossible to make that throw, especially while you’re running left and he’s right-handed. Davis (Webb) was still our guy then, but we just looked at each other like, that is absolutely incredible that he can make that throw.
Kliff Kingsbury, Arizona Cardinals head coach, former Texas Tech head coach: The very first scrimmage that he played in Fall in 2014. He had just gotten there in June. He threw five touchdown passes. He didn’t know what he didn’t know. Everybody was like, “Holy cow, who is this?”
I just remember thinking, I don’t know if he really knows what the plays are yet, but he’s out there running around and making plays just like he did in high school. Every time he was in, he moved the ball and made plays.
Kenny Bell, Arizona Cardinals assistant to the head coach, former Texas Tech chief of staff: We had Thursday night football, mid-September in Stillwater of his freshman year. Davis (Webb) had hurt his shoulder. Jesse Palmer goes, “Patrick Mahome-mezz coming in.” It was so funny looking back at it. We ended up showing it to the team later of that first series. His first three snaps. First play, sack. Second play, sack. Third play, picked off. It was about as bad a start as you could have. But what I remember, he came back into it and ended up making some plays. He threw his first touchdown pass. He threw another ball that should’ve been a touchdown pass but got dropped. He bounced back really quickly and was able to function. And you could just tell, he was thrown into a terrible situation and he was unfazed by it. That’s Patrick, you just saw the humility that he operates with. He’s just so appreciative of everything.
Darrin Chiaverini, Colorado wide receivers coach, former Texas Tech wide receivers coach: Oklahoma State actually had Tyreek Hill playing in the same game. We didn’t win that game, but you could tell that Pat was going to be a special player.
Zach Kittley, Houston Baptist offensive coordinator, former Texas Tech offensive grad assistant: I knew Patrick was really special when we played top-10-ranked Baylor in 2014. We were already out of bowl contention, but Pat carried the team. Had 600 yards and scored six touchdowns, I believe. It was truly a special performance that I’ll never forget. He made some throws in that game that everyone is now seeing for the Chiefs. He’s just different.
Jason Reed, salesman, Infiniti of Lubbock, former Texas Tech recruiting coordinator: When we got him we loved his film, but we didn’t understand why nobody else had offered him. We later heard it was because he might go play baseball. But he had this big arm and the ability to extend plays, and we knew he was a smart kid who was very competitive. Kliff and Haverty loved that he was a three-sport guy, not just some guy going to all these quarterback camps. His film was one crazy play after another, but I didn’t think he’d be able to do all of that at the college level or get away with all of it.
That Baylor game we were out of bowl contention, and that was when you started finding out he really had something to him with his competitiveness and how locked in he was. We got down a big amount (42-17 before Tech lost 48-46). He just willed us back into it, and he was so charismatic and so positive running up and down the sidelines to get everybody going. For a freshman, that’s not easy to do.
I also remember (five-star Tech QB commit Jarrett) Stidham had come to that game. He saw Pat play. I don’t know if that was the only reason because Davis was coming back too and there was gonna be competition. We’d started hearing stuff from someone close to Stidham, and a week and a half later, Kliff and Eric Morris flew down to see him. I guess they’d ate some BBQ and were told he wasn’t coming. (Stidham de-committed from Tech two weeks after the game.)
Davis Webb, Buffalo Bills backup QB, former Texas Tech quarterback: Earlier in the season, he did really well against OU. Got hurt against Texas. But when we played Baylor, he had this unbelievable game against a top-10 team with a ton of NFL guys. Then, in spring ball, he got away from baseball and he took some jumps, and it was pretty cool to see.
It’s not like he has the craziest speed, but he has the ability of somebody I’ve never seen before where he can just escape and elude and buy two seconds longer so guys can get open and he can make any throw down the field. In practice you’d see it and wonder if that was gonna be able to translate to the game, and then the next week, it did. You feel as a backup on the sidelines he was just throwing it up, but then you talk to him right after the drive about what he sees and what was going through his head and you realize man, that is pretty special to have that ability.
I knew all along if he was able to get to a place (in the NFL) where they had talent around them, which they do, and he was around an offensive coordinator who just let him play and not try to mold him and be robotic and just let him be him, that’s when he’s at he’s best, he was gonna take full advantage of it.
Haverty: We went 4-8 his freshman year and Mahomes didn’t get to play as much as he probably should have. The next spring recruiting period, I went back to Whitehouse High School and Coach (Adam) Cook told me that people around town were saying Patrick should transfer schools, but his dad told people that my kids don’t transfer. We compete. Two years later, Patrick was a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft.
Zac Spavital, Texas State defensive coordinator, former Texas Tech linebackers coach: I didn’t know who he was when I got there (in 2015 from Houston). We moved all of our spring practice dates around him because he was still playing baseball. I was like, who is this guy? Is he that good, ’cause I thought Davis Webb was really good from watching him throw. We would practice three days in a row and then have like six days in a row just because of his baseball schedule. And then the first 7-on-7, I was like, Oh my God, he did that famous no-look pass.
(Tech defensive coordinator David) Gibbs looked at me, and was like, What just happened? Between him and Davis, I don’t think there was a dropped ball all day.
We were doing a two-minute drill period and it was fourth-and-20 and he was running backwards. He can take a picture of what’s going on and then he can take his eyes off of it and move around, turn his back to the whole defense, escapes, and then locate his receiver again blind and anticipate where they’re gonna be, so he gets his eyes back around and chucks the ball blind, probably 50-60 yards for a touchdown. You continually say, Well, you can’t do that and you can’t do that. Well, he got away with it and he got away with it, and then it just becomes, Well, that’s just what he does.
Kevin Curtis, SMU cornerbacks coach, former Texas Tech cornerbacks coach: The spring after his freshman season, he’d already played some that year and then the game just had become easy to him. He’s starting to do all these no-look passes in 7-on-7. He’s rolling out to his left and then throwing it back to his right 65 yards on the post. If you’re in zone (coverage), he broke all of your rules. He starts doing that in 7-on-7 and you had no answer for that.
Hunter Rittimann, UTSA assistant wide receivers coach; former Texas Tech QB: I knew he was really special the first time we were playing wiffle ball in our freshmen dorm yard in the spring. He hit a wiffle ball probably 700 yards. I would not make this up.
No, really, like 700 yards. You can ask him. It’s real windy in Lubbock and the wind caught it. I have never seen a ball travel that far in my life. It was over all of our dorms that we stayed at, and those dorms were three stories tall and he hit it over the whole complex. I don’t know the exact distance. It might’ve been over 700, I don’t know. It might still be going.
I would just say, believe any story you hear ’cause it’s probably gonna be true with him.
Stephen Hamby, Western Kentucky offensive line quality control assistant, former Texas Tech offensive lineman: It was probably three or four practices going into his sophomore year. He misreads the signal completely wrong — Coach Kingsbury can go warp speed. It was a counter and he’s supposed to hand it off, but he ends up throwing the RPO and crushing it. Everybody else thought he was just doing everything right. After that, he goes (to the O-line), “Hey, that’s on me, fat guys. My bad!” I’m thinking, Man, this kid is just playing sandlot and he’s unflappable. You usually see guys play quarterback who are overstudying and beating themselves up. He’s just that good and he’s having a blast the whole time.
Nic Shimonek, personal trainer, Hollywood, Calif., former Texas Tech quarterback: I transferred to Texas Tech from Iowa. I was on the scout team just trying to make a name for myself. I was throwing side arm; I was throwing no-look passes. I was throwing little 5-yard no-look slant routes. Well, once Pat got wind of it, he started throwing 15 and 20 yards down the field no-look passes at practice, and eventually he does it on a third-and-20 at Oklahoma State (in 2016) late in the fourth quarter. We had to have a touchdown to tie up the game. He rolls out to his right, and throws it no-look, and it’s an absolute missile that hits the dude right between the numbers on his chest for the first down. We go on to score but then miss the extra point and lose 45-44. His ability to do stuff on the football field in games that nobody else has ever seen is unreal, and he was like 19 or 20 when he did it.
The thing with Patrick is, and what got me so frustrated with the ESPYs last year, when Giannis won the Male Athlete of the Year. Yeah, you can have an athlete that can be super fast or super explosive like a Giannis but then you have an athlete like Patrick who could be a professional in any sport that he chooses. I’ve seen him hit a golf ball, like, Damn, did he really just hit it that far? He can swing so hard but still have everything under control. He’s just so a fluid athlete with everything he does. He could be on the (PGA) Tour in golf if he really devoted his time to it. He could obviously be playing baseball if he wanted. To me, he’s the true embodiment of what an athlete is. He can pick up a baseball, a basketball, a football, a ping pong paddle. He can literally do anything that you put in front of him and he’s gonna be pretty damn good at it. He’s just a different breed I guess.
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