Long road to stardom for Bo Levi Mitchell

Since joining Calgary in 2012, Mitchell has been one of the league’s best

Since becoming a Calgary Stampeder in 2012, Katy, Texas native Bo Levi Mitchell has appeared in three Grey Cups, winning in 2014 when was game MVP. Last year he won the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player Award. Going into Labour Day he’s won 51 of his first 60 starts, second all-time behind Winnipeg’s Kenny Ploen. With him as starter, his team’s record is 55-10-2. He is a winner, although he wasn’t always regarded that way.

In his senior year at Katy High School, Mitchell passed for 2,451 yards, 37 touchdowns and four interceptions. He began his college career at Southern Methodist University where he had 4,590 yards, 37 touchdowns and 33 interceptions. Those picks doomed him as a starter so he transferred to Eastern Washington where he made All-American. Given their shortage of good starting quarterbacks, how did the NFL miss him?

“The NFL looks at your size and level of competition,” he explained. “In my case, I think they looked at my SMU statistics where my first year I led the nation in interceptions. I was seen as not doing well. I went from a high school playbook where I threw seven or eight times a game to one where I might throw 50 times a game. There was a learning curve with that. At SMU my first year, we were 1-11.”

After graduating from EWU, “I attended a Stampeder mini-camp. They wanted to sign me right away. wanted to wait for the NFL draft but nothing happened, so I signed.”

The residents of Katy take their football seriously. Although there’s just under 20,000 of them in the town west of Houston, last month the high school opened a 12,000 seat, $70 million stadium. Fortunately, damage to the area by Tropical Storm Harvey was minimal. Mitchell credits his quarterback coach Pat Dowling with getting him off to a good start. “He taught me I right away that having a good arm wasn’t good enough, that you needed to have a brain and understand the game. My brother and dad really helped me along also.”

Mitchell has been fortunate that both his head coaches in Calgary, John Hufnagel and Dave Dickenson, were outstanding quarterbacks. He appreciates Dickenson’s approach to preparing the game plan and play calling.

Said Bo: “Since I’m the guy who pulls the trigger, I have to feel comfortable with what he calls. I always give him my opinion. I can tell him what I like and don’t like in certain situations like second down long, second down short and he takes that into consideration. In the past, I have had the opportunity to run the offence myself. What makes that difficult here is the play clock. In the States you have 40 seconds to put the ball into play. Here we have 20 which doesn’t give you much time to make adjustments. Dave’s job is to call the plays and put me in a position to be successful.”

His relationship with his receivers is intense. “Every time we run a route, even if it’s a good route, a good throw, I always want to talk about it and look at it on film. Maybe we could do better. I want to know the reason why the receiver did what he did. That’s where understanding comes from. You then know exactly how he’s going to run his route.”

Previously I wrote critically, “What makes Bo run? Nothing, apparently.” He makes no apologies. “That’s not my game. The coaches know that. I like to move around in the pocket. Defensive backs can only cover a receiver for so long. If I can move around in and out of the pocket and create a play, we’re going to get a lot of big plays. I get paid for throwing the football. We have very good running backs.”

Does Dickenson want him to run more? “No, I don’t. I just want him to be himself, adjust to defences and make good decisions. Bo is a smart quarterback as well as an athletic quarterback. He’s everything you’d want in a quarterback.”

A year round resident of Calgary, Mitchell has twice won the Herm Harrison Memorial Award for community service. “I’ve lived a very blessed life. I want to give everything I can to help others.”

Graham Kelly has covered the CFL for the Medicine Hat News for 45 years. Feedback for this column can be emailed to sports@medicinehatnews.com.