San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Do you eat your vegetables, Kellen Mond?
How a 4-year-old superfan ended up in a Zoom meeting with Aggies QBs
COLLEGE STATION — In the past year, Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond has been peppered with questions about the zone read, his touch on the long ball and trying to beat Bama.
Those lobs had not prepared Mond, however, for the high heat from budding correspondent Auggie Failor on Monday.
“Do you eat your vegetables?” Auggie inquired.
“I do,” a grinning Mond replied, “but I don’t like them.”
A few days before that memorable grilling, 4-year-old Auggie had watched intently as his father, Jonathan Failor, took part in yet another virtual work meeting via Daddy’s laptop, a result of the pandemic.
“I wonder today if kids are playing ‘work,’ just like their parents are from home,” Jonathan said with a chuckle.
It seemed so with Auggie, who abruptly (albeit briefly) entered the workforce roughly 18 years before most of his peers.
“Auggie stood at my computer and told me, ‘I have a meeting, too,’ ” Jonathan said.
Naturally, Dad wondered with whom.
“I’m meeting with Kellen
Mond,” the miniature Aggies fan declared.
Jonathan appreciated Auggie’s earnestness, and for kicks posted his son’s declaration to Twitter, tagging @TheKellenMond along the way. An amused Mond retweeted Auggie’s bold claim, and A&M offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey picked up on the fun.
Dickey reached out to Jonathan with an offer for Auggie to join the A&M quarterbacks’ Zoom meeting online last Monday, and Jonathan cautioned the coach that Auggie likely would not ask Mond to break down the LSU defense or discuss opening the season with Abilene Christian, for instance.
“Coach, he might ask the guys about dinosaurs and superheroes,” Jonathan told Dickey.
An appreciative Dickey responded, “It’ll be fun, and the guys need to know these kids look up to them.”
Auggie and Jonathan suddenly were one of the squares of a
Brady Bunch-looking ensemble on Pop’s laptop via Zoom, with the A&M quarterbacks pleasantly surprised by the wideeyed, pint-sized addition to their regular meeting with Dickey.
Mond, as he’s done throughout his career, adjusted on the fly and fielded a handful ofquestions from young Auggie, including whether Mond lives at Kyle Field (he does not).
Dickey wrapped up the meeting by inviting Auggie and his dad, a 2017 A&M graduate, to an Aggies practice this summer or fall, and in doing so made two dreams come true.
“The whole experience was really special,” said Jonathan, who’s had trouble wiping a smile from his face since. “I love that Auggie is excited about what excites me, and just the fact that these guys took a moment to give this kind of opportunity to a 4-year-old. … It’s created a lifetime memory for him.”
The dad’s Texas A&M tale is nearly as cool as the kid’s. Jonathan, 40, was born and raised in Ohio and attended Ohio
State as a freshman in the late
1990s. He dropped out and began working for museums, first in Ohio, later South Carolina (where he met his wife, Danielle) and then North Carolina.
Eight years ago Jonathan was offered the opportunity to work at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site, where Texas’ declaration of independence from Mexico was signed on March 2, 1836. Jonathan and Danielle knew little about Texas, but gathered their belongings and headed southwest in pursuit of a dream.
“Similar to the people who came here in the 19th century,” Jonathan said with a smile. “We packed up and moved to Texas for a better life.”
The couple found a home in Bryan-College Station, and soon were engulfed in “howdys” across town — the signature greeting of A&M.
“I thought, ‘This is the place for me to finish school.’ I had finally found where I was meant to be,” said Jonathan, who added that he appreciates a combination of agriculture and amiability.
After working hard to just get enrolled at A&M in the fall of 2013 in the recreation, park and tourism department — Jonathan said his grades from Ohio State weren’t exactly stellar — he graduated three years ago at the ripe age of 37.
A&M degree in hand, Jonathan was promoted in March 2018 to assistant superintendent at Washington-on-the-Brazos, about 50 miles northwest of Houston, and a few months later he became the storied site’s superintendent when his boss retired. Not bad for an Ohio State dropout.
“Moving to Texas was the greatest risk we’ve ever taken,” Jonathan said. “And it’s been the greatest reward.”
Auggie, whose given name is August, was born in College Station in 2015 with his dad still enrolled at A&M, and nearly five years later the youngster found himself face-to-face, virtually, with one of his Aggie heroes.
“Hey,” a probing Auggie asked, “what is your favorite dinosaur, Kellen Mond?”