Patrick Mahomes disputes Tommy Tuberville’s Texas Tech recruitment claim after Trump flub

Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s, R-Ala., ties to Patrick Mahomes came under further dispute Thursday — a day after President Trump insinuated that Alabama’s senior senator coached the Super Bowl-winning quarterback at Texas Tech.

Not only did Tuberville not coach Mahomes, Alabama’s senior senator didn’t even recruit him, according to Mahomes.

“He did not recruit me at the time,” Mahomes said during a media availability Thursday ahead of Super Bowl LIX, when the quarterback’s Kansas Chiefs aim to become the first NFL team to win three straight titles in the Super Bowl era.

“I don’t remember if I ever got to meet him or not,” Mahomes continued.

While signing an executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s public school sports, Trump suggested Tuberville coached the two-time Super Bowl champ.

“A great coach,” Trump said of Tuberville, who was head coach at Auburn, Texas Tech and elsewhere before being elected to the Senate in 2020.

“You know, his quarterback was named Mahomes. He was a great college coach. And I said, ‘How good was he?’ He said, ‘You don’t wanna know how good. He made me into a great coach.’ He’s a pretty good quarterback, right? Yeah, he was very good. And he’s a good guy, too.”

Mahomes played at Texas Tech before being selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2017 NFL Draft but did not arrive in Lubbock until after Tuberville departed the school in late 2012.

Mahomes was a high school junior at the time — and in his first year as playing as a quarterback.

Before Mahomes spoke on Thursday, Tuberville doubled down on his ties to the quarterback. “What happened was I recruited him,” Tuberville said.

“As a coach, you start recruiting and working with players years before they get to college. Patrick Mahomes was one of the best players I ever had the opportunity to recruit and get to know,” Tuberville tweeted.

“Looking forward to cheering him on this weekend when I join President Trump at the Super Bowl.”

According to a fact check by the Cover 3 podcast, Texas Tech was recruiting another quarterback, D.J. Gillen, and Mahomes was not being recruited by Texas Tech until a month after Tuberville left the school for the University of Cincinnati and Gillen decommitted.