Prolific passing
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is setting records and drawing attention at Texas Tech,
In late December, after Texas Tech capped its 2015 season with a Texas Bowl loss to LSU, Patrick Mahomes II went home to Whitehouse, Texas, and decided to quit playing baseball.
It wasn’t an easy decision for a number of reasons, and two in particular: Mahomes is a baseball talent, capable of being selected in the first few rounds of the MLB draft coming out of high school, and his father, Pat, pitched for six teams over more than a decade in the major leagues.
Mahomes informed his coach, Kliff Kingsbury, of his decision during a postseason exit interview in early January. In the spring of 2015, for example, the Red Raiders had adjusted their practice times to match Mahomes’ baseball schedule — but the junior was still absent for film sessions and workouts.
“I think some people don’t understand the dynamics of the locker room or the team and how important it is for a quarterback to be a leader and be around these guys,” Texas Tech offensive coordinator Eric Morris said. “It was equally important for him to be around the locker room and be around the players.”
Not that it mattered, generally speaking.
A year ago, in his first season as the Red Raiders’ full-time starter, Mahomes threw for 4,653 yards and 36 touchdowns, showing a combination of arm strength and innate ability to stand out even among Texas Tech’s long list of productive passers.
But now he wanted to focus on football. Well, Kingsbury said, if you’re not going to be there — meaning on the diamond — you need to be here.
“When he made the decision, I basically told him that I’m not going to let him not become a complete player and see the field and do things better,” Kingsbury said. “And he made that decision on his own as well.”
Kingsbury and Morris outlined the process. Mahomes needed to study film, and he needed to learn how to study film. He had to work on the little things: his dropbacks, his timing, reading defenses, having a plan, playing within himself, playing safer.
Mahomes had to increase his completion rate, which was a fairly pedestrian 63.5% in 2015 — good but not good enough in Kingsbury’s pass-happy system. You have to cut down on your in- terceptions, Morris said, and stop relying only on athleticism.
What separates good quarterbacks from great ones? It might be time and experience. Or a razor-thin edge in awareness and presence. Or an upper hand in arm strength and foot speed. And it might be as simple as focus: the dedication to honing one’s craft.
It was during those winter meetings that Mahomes decided to become great.
“When he actually put all his mind and effort into something like football, it was just a meteoric jump in his development,” Kingsbury said. “When you take an athlete that’s as skilled as he is and all of his focus finally poured into one, it just went like this.” NUMBERS PILE UP This, as Kingsbury puts it, is one of the most prolific runs by a quarterback in Football Bowl Subdivision history.
In seven games, Mahomes has thrown for 3,313 yards, best in the FBS by nearly 100 yards per game, and 26 touchdowns. In Saturday’s 66-59 loss to Oklahoma, Mahomes made 88 attempts, one off the FBS record, and threw for 734 yards, tied for the most in a single game.
He has thrown for at least 470 yards in five of his seven games in 2016 and for multiple touchdowns in every game but one. The 88 passes last weekend alone are more than Army and Navy have attempted all season, and the yardage total more than Army, Navy and Tulane.
Mahomes ranks first in passing yards and yards per game. He sits second in attempts and completions and is tied for third in touchdown passes. He is in the top 10 of every major NCAA passing category: attempts, completions, completion percentage, yards, yards per attempt, touch- downs, efficiency rating and yards per game.
The production is rooted in part in the system: Texas Tech has featured a parade of all-conference quarterbacks for more than a decade, beginning with Kingsbury himself in the early 2000s. But Mahomes is different.
“For Coach Kingsbury to look at me in the eye, and I think he says things to me that he doesn’t to other people,” Morris said, “and say this kid is going to be the best guy I’ve ever coached and it’s not even close … it’s saying a lot about the kid.”
Said receiver Dillon Cantrell, a teammate of Mahomes’ at Whitehouse High School, “There’s definitely no limits to him.”
Mahomes’ growth from merely productive to nearly without peer among FBS quarterbacks can be tied to four factors: his decision to quit baseball, countless hours in the weight room, even more time studying film and his work with a virtual-reality program new to Texas Tech this offseason.
“I’ve really sold out all the way in football. I’ve really spent all my time here,” Mahomes said. “It’s just made things a lot easier. I have a good game plan. I’m bigger; I’m stronger; I’m faster. I mean, it’s something where everything ’s come together at the right time. It shows on the field.”
He remade his body, turning “a lot of my little chubbiness into muscle,” he said. A year ago, Morris would tease Mahomes, calling him “Fat Pat.” Mahomes, now 230 pounds, looks the part of a next-level quarterback.
He took no vacation during the spring or summer — there hasn’t been one day without football, Mahomes said — instead treating himself to swims at Texas Tech’s pool after Saturday workouts. Well, there were two trips: one to a camp in Orange County, Calif., where Mahomes served as a counselor alongside five other FBS quarterbacks, and the second to Louisiana for the Manning Passing Academy in June.
It was at the latter that Mahomes heard from Peyton Manning, who stressed the importance of matching on-field work with film study. If you’re watching film without a notebook, Manning said, you’re wasting your time. A LOT MORE TO LEARN The numbers, the lofty totals and his rapid development overshadow a crucial point: Mahomes is still growing. He didn’t play quarterback in high school until his junior year and didn’t start a full season until he was a senior. He took no redshirt year; Mahomes was tossed into the fire as a rookie in 2014.
“People still don’t understand he doesn’t have that much experience,” Morris said. “It’s not like he’s a fifth-year senior that’s been around and seen it all. He has so much raw talent.”
In other words, there’s room for additional improvement.
The same can be said of Texas Tech as a whole. Three losses in a row — to Kansas State, West Virginia and Oklahoma — have dropped the Red Raiders to 3-4, with three road trips in five games to end the regular season. The losing streak has sent Mahomes tumbling out of the Heisman Trophy race and left Tech in need of a turnaround to secure bowl eligibility.
The Red Raiders rank 127th, next to last, in scoring defense, allowing 43.9 points per game, too much for even Mahomes’ offense to overcome sometimes.
For Mahomes, there’s a bigger lesson to be had amid his team’s midseason swoon. A year ago, he would be as likely to gamble on a given play — to “go for the gusto,” Morris said — as he would to take the safe throw, to attempt to swallow defenses whole rather than attack within the framework of the Red Raiders offense.
There are still missteps. For the second year in a row, West Virginia’s defense had a plan for slowing Mahomes; he threw for 305 yards and a single touchdown in a humbling 48-17 defeat. At times, Morris said, “He reverts back to old stuff.”
It will come, eventually — for Texas Tech and its potential AllAmerica quarterback.
Besides, the last nine months tell the story of Mahomes’ nightand-day progress from thrower to quarterback. And there’s a difference: Mahomes was good; now he’s great. And how much better can he be?
“I keep kind of wondering that,” Kingsbury said. “Because I look up, and all of a sudden I see his numbers and I’m like, ‘ That’s unbelievable.’ I still think there’s a lot of room there for improvement and growth.”