Before he was a two-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl legend, Patrick Mahomes was just a baseball kid. He went from East Texas with a cannon for an arm and a Texas-sized wild side. Today, he’s a household name for no-look passes, off-platform throws, and impossible comebacks. However, his football origin story is one of blue-chip pedigree and five-star status.
Nope, Mahomes built his legend on the Lone Star heat, throwing the rock for a team that didn’t win many games but sure could entertain. If you ever sat through a Texas Tech game from 2014 to 2016, there’s a pretty good chance you saw fireworks courtesy of a young Mahomes with unhinged brilliance.
Where Did Patrick Mahomes Play College Football?
Mahomes attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, from 2014 to 2016. Coming out of Whitehouse High School, he was not a can’t-miss prospect—just a three-star one who had passed for over 4,600 yards and run for another 900 his senior season.
But most Power Five programs passed on him. Texas Tech, with then-head coach and former Red Raider quarterback Kliff Kingsbury, did not.
Before becoming the best player in the NFL, Patrick Mahomes was doing otherworldly things at Texas Tech 🌵. In his final 2 seasons⬇️
• 77 Passing TDs
• 9,705 Passing Yards
• 22 Rushing TDs
• TTU averaged 44+ PPG pic.twitter.com/EbKy3KHkUu— College Football Report (@CFBRep) January 27, 2024
Mahomes signed with Texas Tech to play football and baseball, similar to his father, Pat Mahomes Sr., who pitched for the MLB. But after tasting the Big 12 brand of football, Mahomes abandoned the diamond for the gridiron alone. And boy, did it pay off.
As a first-year player in 2014, Mahomes was inserted into the lineup after the starter, Davis Webb, was hurt. In just four games as a starter, Mahomes threw for 1,547 yards and 16 touchdowns. This included the game-changing 598-yard, six-touchdown display to end the season. That was the script.
In 2015, Mahomes was Tech’s starting quarterback full-time and became a statistical beast. He passed for 4,653 yards and 36 touchdowns and ran for 456 more yards and 10 touchdowns.
With that, he showed glimpses of what would become his signature style: scrambling out of chaos, delivering 50-yard passes on the run, and occasionally seeming to be drawing up plays in the dirt.
It was 2016, however, his second season as the full-time starter, that Mahomes truly blew up. He led the country in passing yards (5,052) and total offense (5,337) and was involved in 53 touchdowns—41 passing and 12 rushing.
His career (and most unhinged) performance came in a 66–59 loss to Oklahoma in what’s become known as one of the most memorable shootouts in college football history. Mahomes set an NCAA single-game record for passing with 734 yards and for total yards in a game at 819.
“That’s something you’ll never see again,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said postgame. “That kid was on another planet.”
From Lubbock Legend to NFL Star
Though Texas Tech struggled during Mahomes’ tenure, going 13–19 in his 32 starts, he was impossible to ignore. He left Lubbock with career figures of 11,252 passing yards, 93 touchdowns, 29 interceptions, and 22 rushing touchdowns.
In three seasons, he was one of the most prolific quarterbacks in school annals, second only to Graham Harrell and Kingsbury in school yardage.
Scouts were intrigued but not sold. Mahomes’ mechanics were rough, his throwing style unorthodox, and he played for an offense most perceived as “system-based.” But at the 2017 NFL Combine, Mahomes wowed with his cannon arm— throwing a 60-mph pass, the quickest recorded at the Combine—and showed his deep football smarts in interviews.
But few could have predicted what happened next. The Kansas City Chiefs leapt 17 spots to take him 10th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft, ahead of the likes of Deshaun Watson and Mitchell Trubisky. Head coach Andy Reid believed he had found something special.
“He’s got an uncanny sense for the game,” Reid said. “You can teach mechanics. You can’t teach vision, creativity, and guts.”
The rest, so they say, is history.
Winless though it may be, Mahomes’ university legacy is cemented at Texas Tech. In 2022, he was inducted into the Texas Tech Ring of Honor at Jones AT&T Stadium as the eighth player in university history, the first active NFL player to receive that honor.
“It’s where it all started,” Mahomes told reporters at the ceremony. “This community molded me into who I am—not just as a player, but as a man.”
KEEP READING: Patrick Mahomes Honors His Texas Roots With Heartfelt Surprise for High School Football Programs
The next time Mahomes unleashes a sidearm laser or scrambles 30 yards to toss a touchdown, just remember: it all started under the Friday night lights of Texas, and it took to the skies under the West Texas sun at Texas Tech.
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