Patrick Mahomes Named 'Best' College Quarterback Ever

Texas Tech was never close to making the national championship during the Patrick Mahomes era, but he was recently crowned the "best" quarterback in the history of college football.

Former Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy appeared on Colin Cowherd's "The Herd" this Thursday to discuss his career, the current state of college sports and a few other hot topics. While on the popular FS1 show, Gundy revealed that Mahomes was the best college quarterback he's ever seen.

"He's the best college quarterback that I've ever seen. 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," Gundy said, via On3.

"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."

Judging by the responses on social media, football fans disagree with Gundy's claim about Mahomes.

"This guy coached against Vince Young, Jason White, Sam Bradford, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Colt McCoy, RG 3….and the best QB he says was at best 2nd team all big 12 once," one fan replied.

"I align with Gundy on everything except Mahomes," a second fan wrote.

"Sam Bradford owned Gundy, putting up video game stats. He just can't make himself pick a Sooner," another fan said.

Is Mahomes truly the best college QB ever?

Mahomes had 11,252 passing yards, 93 touchdowns and 29 interceptions during his career at Texas Tech. If you go by the numbers, he's not the "best" quarterback in the history of college football.

During the 2010s era alone, Baker Mayfield and Deshaun Watson had more success on an individual level than Mahomes. We've also seen quarterbacks, such as Joe Burrow, have historically great single seasons.

Make no mistake though, Mahomes has put together a résumé in the NFL that only few can match.

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This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 10:00 PM.