Kliff Kingsbury coached Patrick Mahomes for three years at Texas Tech, and although the team was not particularly good -- Texas Tech went 13-16 in games Mahomes started -- both men have gone on to greener pastures.
Now Kingsbury is head coach of the Cardinals and Mahomes is the star quarterback for the Chiefs, and as they prepare to face each other on Sunday, Kingsbury says he’s looking forward to seeing his old quarterback on an NFL field.
“I’m just really proud of the person more than anything, just watching how he’s grown up, the leadership qualities he shows on and off the field,” Kingsbury said, via the Kansas City Star. “I mean, anytime you watch him in any of those arenas, just how socially responsible he is, how he leads, how he treats people, the stuff he does in the community with charities. He runs the gamut of what you want a sports star to be like and carry himself, and so that’s been really special to watch that development.”
Kingsbury says Mahomes didn’t get the credit he deserved in college because Texas Tech wasn’t good enough, but smart teams like the Chiefs were well aware of his talent.
“We didn’t have as much success,” he said. “Offensively we did. We scored a bunch of points, bunch of yards all that, but we didn’t have the wins maybe that could have brought the attention that it could have. But the guys that I trusted in the league and the guys that I knew, and with what they were telling me, I had a feeling that he was going to be just fine.”
Mahomes has been better than just fine, and is going to be a major challenge for the Cardinals’ defense on Sunday.
