Skip to main content
Join Now
Get a profile. Be recruited.

Mike Gundy calls Patrick Mahomes 'the best college quarterback that I've ever seen'

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz05/01/26NickSchultz_7

Before Patrick Mahomes became a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, he put up huge numbers as Texas Tech’s quarterback. Although he never got a win against Oklahoma State, he left a lasting impression on Mike Gundy, who called Mahomes the best quarterback he’s seen at the college level.

Oklahoma State won all three games against Texas Tech in which Mahomes appeared from 2014-16. But in two starts, the future No. 10 overall pick threw for 841 yards and seven touchdowns in two high-scoring games – a 70-53 loss in 2015 and a 45-44 loss in 2016.

After that game in 2016, though, Gundy recalled pulling Mahomes aside and encouraging him to declare for the 2017 NFL Draft. The longtime Oklahoma State coach saw enough to put Mahomes in a category of his own.

“He’s the best college quarterback that I’ve ever seen,” Gundy said on The Herd. “And I told him after his junior year, we beat them I think by one point. … I went out on the field and told him, ‘Patrick, there’s no reason you should come back and play college football next year. You need to go out [for the draft].’ And he laughed, but I was being serious because he was the best college quarterback that I’ve ever seen. He made play after play after play after play. And he did it in very high-scoring games.

“At that time he was in our league, we had four or five quarterbacks in the Big 12 ever year over about a six- or seven-year stretch and all of them played in the NFL. You know as well as anybody, if you have an NFL team on your team in college, you’re going to win games. You’ll win nine, 10, 11, 12 games. He played against those teams week to week. He was the best college quarterback that I’ve ever seen.”

During each of his two years as Texas Tech’s starter, Patrick Mahomes led the Big 12 in passing yards. He threw for 4,653 yards and 36 touchdowns as a sophomore in 2015, then followed that up with 5,052 yards and 41 touchdowns as a junior in Kliff Kingsbury’s Air Raid offense.

From there, of course, the rest is history. Mahomes landed with the Chiefs and, after sitting a year behind Alex Smith, became one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks. Since becoming the starter in 2018, he has made six Pro Bowls and is a two-time NFL MVP. Of course, he also has three Super Bowl titles and won MVP in each victory.