During the countdown to the Kansas City-San Francisco Super Bowl rematch on Feb. 11, Patrick Mahomes will be the most talked-about and written-about participant.
Patrick Mahomes celebrates following Kansas City’s 17-10 AFC Championship victory at Baltimore on Sunday. MATT SLOCUM/AP Photo
Matt Slocum—staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
As road underdogs in their sixth consecutive AFC Championship game appearance on Sunday, Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs prevailed 17-10 at Baltimore. Against the NFC champion 49ers, Kansas City bids for what would be its third Super Bowl victory in five seasons.
Kansas City defeated San Francisco 31-20 in February 2020, lost 31-9 to Tom Brady and Tampa Bay in February 2021 and edged out Philadelphia 38-35 a year ago. Mahomes was voted the MVP in each of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victories. In 2018 and 2022, he was the NFL’s regular-season Most Valuable Player.
Before Mahomes was drafted 10th overall in 2017, the Chiefs hadn’t played in a Super Bowl in 47 years. As Brady retired one year ago this week, the 28-year-old Mahomes now reigns as the most accomplished of all current pro football players.
The Big 12 has been a star-studded conference with Heisman Trophy recipients Ricky Williams of Texas, Eric Crouch of Nebraska, Jason White of Oklahoma, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma, Robert Griffin III of Baylor, Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma and Kyler Murray of Oklahoma.
Von Miller was great at Texas A&M. Ndamukong Suh was unblockable at Nebraska. Darren Sproles and Terence Newman were tremendous at Kansas State. Michael Crabtree was a big-play machine at Texas Tech. Jeremy Maclin was a two-time All-American at Missouri.
Additional Big 12 superstar names from a mile-long list: OU’s Roy Williams, Tommie Harris, Adrian Peterson and Ryan Broyles; Texas’ Vince Young and Colt McCoy; and Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon.
In spite of having played for 2014-16 Texas Tech teams that were a combined 16-21 overall and 9-18 in league play, Patrick Mahomes has to be considered the greatest player in Big 12 Conference history. Mahomes has driven the Kansas City Chiefs to six consecutive AFC Championship games and four Super Bowl appearances. T
During his 2014-16 run at Texas Tech, Mahomes was dazzling but his teams were not. Those three Red Raider squads were a combined 16-21. In only 29 games as the Texas Tech starter, Mahomes passed for 11,252 yards and 93 touchdowns.
If you bundle individual performance at the college level with championship-level performance and MVP awards in the NFL, then Mahomes clearly is the best player in the 28-season history of Big 12 football.
As we’re about to be buried under a two-week avalanche of Super Bowl hype and minutiae, there are fascinating Mahomes-related nuggets that might get lost.
While having been a three-sport dynamo at Whitehouse High School near Tyler, Texas, Mahomes scored major-college football scholarship offers only from Texas Tech, Rice and Oklahoma State.
The 2014 OSU recruiting class included Mason Rudolph — a four-star quarterback from South Carolina. In April 2013, Mahomes received an offer from Oklahoma State. A few days later, he committed to Kliff Kingsbury’s Texas Tech program.
In June 2013, Rudolph committed to OSU. The Rudolph-OSU relationship was healthy. He quarterbacked 10-win Cowboy teams in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
In September 2014, as the Red Raiders were on the Boone Pickens Stadium turf in Stillwater, Mahomes experienced his first game action as a college QB. Red Raider starter Davis Webb sustained a fourth-quarter injury. As a first-year freshman, Mahomes was 2-of-5 passing for 20 yards and a touchdown. OSU won 45-35.
OU won 66-59 at Texas Tech in 2016, but Red Raider quarterback Patrick Mahomes had an amazing performance: 734 passing yards, five TD passes and 85 rushing yards. With 819 yards, he set a new national record for single-game total offense.
Tulsa World Archive photos
The most famous of Mahomes’ college games was played on Oct. 22, 2016, when Mayfield and the Sooners visited Lubbock for a prime-time showdown.
Mayfield had been a Texas Tech walk-on before he transferred to OU. To commemorate his return to Jones AT&T Stadium, Texas Tech students wore “TRAITOR” T-shirts. Mayfield himself wore that T-shirt before the game.
When time expired on one of the wildest games in Big 12 history, the Sooners were 66-59 winners. Mayfield passed for 545 yards and five TDs. Joe Mixon had the best stat line of his OU career, scoring five times while rushing for 263 yards and catching four Mayfield passes for 114 yards.
Mahomes had an unbelievable Saturday night, setting a major-college record for single-game total offense with 819 yards. He passed for 734 yards and seven touchdowns while adding 85 rushing yards.
As the Texas Tech starting quarterback, Mahomes had a record of 13-16. As a starter against OU and Oklahoma State, he was 0-5.
However, when partnered with Kansas City figures like Andy Reid and Travis Kelce, Mahomes became the great Patrick Mahomes. He became a phenom.
His talent can be measured by this stat: Texas Tech was 8-14 in conference games in which Mahomes was the starting QB, and yet he now has to be considered the greatest player in Big 12 history.
