Patrick Mahomes will be the first Big 12 quarterback to start in the Super Bowl when the Chiefs and 49ers meet Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
Who was the last quarterback in the conference to start in the Super Bowl? It's a bit of a trick question.
Three-time Super Bowl winner Troy Aikman started his career at Oklahoma, but transferred and finished his collegiate career at UCLA. Actually, Vince Ferragamo was the last quarterback to do it: He started his career at Cal before transferring to Nebraska — then in the Big Eight. He started in Super Bowl 14 for the Los Angeles Rams against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Mahomes will end that 40-year drought for those quarterbacks Sunday.
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"I was not aware of that," Ferragamo told Sporting News when asked to answer that obscure piece of Super Bowl trivia. "It's like, 'Wow, it took that long.' At the time it was the Big Eight. … Since those days, a lot has happened. The game has changed."
Mahomes has helped changed the perception for Big 12 quarterbacks. He finished with 11,252 passing yards and 93 passing touchdowns to 29 interceptions at Texas Tech before Kansas City selected him with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. He won NFL MVP honors in 2018 after throwing for 50 touchdowns, and now the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years.
Mahomes has done all that with more than just no-look passes: He has helped eliminate the negative perception of how Big 12 quarterbacks translate in the NFL.
That perception dates back to Ferragamo, who played in the Big Eight at a time when Nebraska and Oklahoma ran option offenses that dominated college football. Ferragamo was a fourth-round pick in 1977.
The conference shifted to a more pass-happy league as the Big 12, which was founded in 1994 and commenced competition in 1996. Yet it produced surprisingly few first-round picks before Mahomes in 2017:
| Player | School | Draft (overall pick) |
| Vince Young | Texas | 2006 (3) |
| Josh Freeman | Kansas State | 2009 (17) |
| Sam Bradford | Oklahoma | 2010 (1) |
| Blaine Gabbert | Missouri | 2011 (10) |
| Robert Griffin III | Baylor | 2012 (2) |
| Ryan Tannehill | Texas A&M | 2012 (8) |
| Brandon Weeden | Oklahoma State | 2012 (22) |
Since Mahomes, however, Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield (2018) and Kyler Murray (2019) have been selected with the No. 1 overall pick. Former Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury took the same position for the Arizona Cardinals, and Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley is constantly mentioned when the NFL coaching carousel turns.
"I think the QB traits from year's past — 'Can he throw? Is he big? Is he strong? Is he an accurate passer? Does he have a good head on his shoulders?' — those things are important for the quarterback," Ferragamo said. "But the game has changed, and you have to roll with the times."
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Mahomes can keep the good times rolling with more playoff success. Mahomes and Tannehill won playoff games this year and led the Chiefs and Titans to the AFC Championship game. Other than Aikman and Ferragamo, Kordell Stewart (1997, 2001) and Lynn Dickey (1982) are the only other quarterbacks from the conference to win an NFL playoff start.
In the last Super Bowl appearance, Ferragamo led the Rams against the Steelers. Los Angeles led 13-10 at halftime, but the Steelers pulled away in the second half of a 31-19 victory.
"I think Patrick has the same task at hand next week. This is one of the best young defenses I've seen in a long time," Ferragamo said. "Now, do they compare to Pittsburgh? Yeah, maybe so. They really have a great front-four pass rush. In some ways, they are like the Fearsome Foursome."
Ferragamo, however, remains impressed with Mahomes, especially his ability to be a great communicator on the field. He calls it an "unspoken magic," and it's one that was cultivated in the Big 12.
"It's the wide-open offense he was so accustomed to playing in," Ferragamo said. "If you watch them and you've been in the huddle, you can appreciate the way they describe the play and how confident the level of their expression is."
