Article about his background, including the Texas high school coaches and trainers who influenced him
Patrick Mahomes' Super Bowl journey started in East Texas
" .... With Taylor in his senior season, Mahomes played safety as a sophomore in 2011, intercepting five passes, before McFarlin installed him as the starter in 2012.
He threw for 3,839 yards and 46 touchdowns for the 2012 team that included future Texas Tech wide receiver Dylan Cantrell, and, after McFarlin’s contract was not renewed for the 2013 season, had 4,619 yards and 50 TDs plus 15 rushing scores for the 2013 team coached by Adam Cook.
“He had the pure joy of playing,” McFarlin said. “He loved to compete, and he loved to win.”
He also drove his coach to distraction.
“I remember one game where I was yelling, ‘Just throw it away, throw it away,’ and he ended up throwing a touchdown pass,” McFarlin said. “The next week, the same scenario took place, and everybody in the stands got out their camera phones and said, ‘Here it comes again,’ and it did.
“He’s been making plays like the ones you see on Sunday for a long time.”
Mahomes grew up as a quarterback in a training system that Dodge developed in the late 1980s as an assistant to Ron Poe in McKinney. He refined it as head coach at two D-FW area schools before winning titles at Carroll and Westlake, which produced Texas’ other Super Bowl starting quarterbacks, Drew Brees of the Saints and Nick Foles of the Eagles.
“We would start in junior high school with classroom work on the basics of defense,” Moore said. “Then we would do film work before we started throwing drills, scramble drills and basic fundamentals.”
Mahomes, however, brought his own particular skills to the table that defied the textbook pattern.
“He had a natural three-quarter throwing motion,” Moore said. “One of the drills we worked on called for a high release to throw the ball over a net. We discussed during his eighth-grade year about him throwing more over the top but decided not to mess with him.” ...."
One of the more unusual drills involved quarterbacks lying on their back or stomach, the ball by their side, in front of a net with several throwing pockets. On the coach’s command, players would leap to their feet, grab the ball and throw it into a specific pocket in the net.
While the drill would seem to emphasize accuracy, Dodge said the intent was to develop footwork....."