The 30 best college football quarterbacks of the 21st century

• Sammy Baugh Trophy (2016)
• Second-Team All-Big 12 (2016)

Patrick Mahomes arrived at Texas Tech in 2014 just after the departure of Baker Mayfield, who transferred to Oklahoma. A 3-star recruit entering his college football career, Mahomes started the season sitting behind Davis Webb. However, when Webb succumbed to injury, the Whitehouse, TX product took over the offense for the end of his freshman season and never looked back, chucking the ball all over the field.

Including a six-touchdown, 598-yard monster outing against Baylor that set freshman records in the conference, Mahomes finished his freshman season playing in seven games (four starts) and throwing for 1,547 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions on the year. That was just a brief taste, though, of what the gunslinger was about to do to opposing secondaries over his next two seasons.

As a sophomore, Mahomes and the Red Raiders may have gone 7-6, but that was not remotely on the shoulders of the quarterback. He more than did his part as he threw for 4,653 yards, 36 touchdowns and 15 interceptions while also adding 10 rushing touchdowns in 13 games.

After that phenomenal effort, Mahomes bettered it with a dominant passing performance — even though Texas Tech went just 5-7 — in his junior campaign. He threw for 5,052 yards, 41 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions while also rushing for 12 scores on the year.

Because of the aforementioned Mayfield in the same conference in 2017 and the lack of Red Raiders’ success, Mahomes didn’t rack up nearly the accolades you would think during his time in college. Even still, he was one of the most electrifying players in the sport who put up the numbers to back it up and already has an NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP to his credit with the Kansas City Chiefs.