During the college recruitment process for Patrick Mahomes, the Texas Longhorns thought he could maybe play defensive back. Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, meanwhile, saw Mahomes as a quarterback capable of winning a Big 12 title and playing in the NFL.
Though Mahomes didn’t lead the Red Raiders to the Big 12 championship, he has already been named NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP. And Mahomes and Kingsbury will be reunited on the football field for the first time since their college days when the Chiefs take on the Cardinals in the season opener at 3:25 p.m. Sunday in Glendale, Ariz.
“He’s someone who has taught me a ton not only about football but about life,” Mahomes said of Kingsbury, who became the Cardinals coach in 2019. “He got me out of high school where I was a baseball player trying to play football and basically trying to be on my own.
“You’re leaving the household and being on your own, and he helped me become who I am today. And it’ll be cool to get to play against him. Hopefully I get the win because I’ll have those little bragging rights because I see him every once in a while during the offseason out in Lubbock and stuff like that. So it’s definitely going to be an awesome moment.”
Mahomes and Kingsbury first formed a connection when Kingsbury would come up to watch Mahomes’ high school games and talk with Mahomes and his family. Mahomes said that while a few smaller schools offered him a scholarship, his relationship with Kingsbury was key.
“He believed in me,” Mahomes said. “And I think that’s the reason I’m in this position. He gave me that chance.”
While at Texas Tech, Mahomes said Kingsbury never limited his playing style, and instead he encouraged him to be the freewheeling, gunslinging quarterback that he is today.
“He was early in the game of saying let’s maximize your strengths,” Mahomes said. “And he would teach me here and there on being more mechanical in the pocket and the fundamentals of the game. But he never restricted who I was, and I think that’s amplified with Coach (Andy) Reid now.
“But I could have went somewhere and been this pocket quarterback who had the right fundamentals. But he let me be who I was on and off the field.”
When Mahomes was deciding whether to stay in college or turn pro, Kingsbury told him to be “all in either way.” So when Mahomes left school to try his luck in the NFL, he was initially viewed as a second- or third-round pick.
The Chiefs, however, talked to Kingsbury, and Reid’s evaluation of Mahomes grew even more.
“He loved Patrick and thought he would be a great professional football player even though the offense was different,” Reid said. “But you’re seeing his offense now be very successful and you’re seeing Patrick be very successful. But at that time, it was kind of new to the NFL. And he was great with it. And I respect his input. It was one of the reasons we went after Patrick as hard as we did. He told me he’s good.”
So with Kingsbury’s firsthand knowledge of Mahomes, does he know how to stop him? Well, not exactly.
“I’m sure he has a few more tricks that he might know from my college days,” Mahomes said. “But I feel like I’ve grown a lot since I’ve been in the NFL. So hopefully we can combat that. I’m sure he has a good idea of who I am, but it’s a hard offense to stop altogether and that’s what makes this offense so great.”
