Kellen Mond goes into his junior season at Texas A&M having added a key ingredient to his skill set: confidence.
At the Southeastern Conference media days – an event that rarely moves the news needle – Mond made a statement that raised a few eyebrows. Mond was asked who he thinks is the best quarterback in the league. The safe and mundane answer would have been throwing praise at Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and Georgia’s Jake Fromm, two proven QBs who are on most preseason Heisman Trophy lists.
“I feel, in my opinion, I’m the best one,” Mond said. “That’s not just because I’m a confident person but I actually believe that. I feel like my teammates believe in me, too, and Coach (Jimbo) Fisher does. I can come out here and say that in front of the media, but I have to go out and prove it out on the field. The SEC has a lot of great quarterbacks and they’ve all proven that throughout the years, but I feel like I’m the best.”
Fisher, going into his second season at A&M and facing one of the nation’s toughest schedules, knows that he has a quarterback and team leader ready for the fight.
“I love the comment. If you don’t think it, you can’t be it,” he said. “Now he’s got to go play. I’m glad he’s got that confidence going on. That tells me what he thinks about himself. There’s a time in this business … you say, ‘You know something? I can do this.'”
That was not always apparent. Mond, from San Antonio, was a 4-star recruit signed by former coach Kevin Sumlin. Mond was a record-setting QB at IMG Academy but as a freshman in College Station he lost out to Nick Starkel for the starting job. When Starkel broke his ankle, Mond was thrust into the lineup. Facing SEC defenses a year after dicing up prep foes, Mond struggled.
When Fisher replaced Sumlin, Mond prevailed in a second battle with Starkel, who has transferred to Arkansas. Last season, a devastating loss early in the season bracketed by a miraculous victory in the season finale provided the confidence boost Mond is currently displaying.
Facing Clemson in the opener, Mond decimated a veteran defense. He threw for 430 yards and three touchdowns in a 28-26 loss. The Aggies fell just short of forcing overtime when Mond’s pass on a two-point conversion was incomplete.
The Aggies closed the season with an epic, record-setting seven-overtime defeat of LSU at Kyle Field. Mond’s touchdown pass with no time on the clock tied the game in regulation. Mond finished with six touchdown passes and ran for another score in the 74-72 final.
Mond says that despite the loss to Clemson, that game was a proving ground for him and his teammates.
“I feel like it really helped us,” he said. “We were kind of a new team, still developing a new culture. Coach would even say not everybody was fully confident that we could play with them. For them coming into (Kyle Field), and us as our second game under coach Fisher, I thought we competed really well. But now, I think we know that we have the type of confidence that we can go out and play and beat any team in this country.”
In 2018, Mond finished with 2,967 yards and 23 touchdowns plus nine rushing touchdowns. He was fourth in the SEC in total offense, fifth in touchdowns and sixth in passing yardage. For the first time since 2013, Texas A&M has an established starting quarterback to start the season. The counter to that is that with Starkel’s transfer, the roster lacks an experienced backup QB.
While the Aggies return most of their top receivers plus have a deep and experienced offensive line, Mond will run an offense that has to replace the SEC’s top tailback (Trayveon Williams) and top tight end (Jace Sternberger). Texas A&M’s season will likely hinge on the outcomes of road games at Clemson, Georgia and LSU. One true mark of a great quarterback is winning in challenging road environments.
Fisher has a reputation for developing quarterbacks. His offensive system is considered more of an NFL, West Coast style that demands the quarterback be in complete charge including calling out pass protection assignments at the line of scrimmage. Fisher says Mond has embraced the mental challenges.
“He became a student of the game” Fisher said. “He’s one tough sucker. If your quarterback isn’t your tough, your team isn’t tough. He’s a tremendous leader. He’s competitive. He gets it.
“It’s really fun to have conversations with him now,” Fisher said. “Because he understands our language, our lingo, what to expect, what things (to do) when we see certain looks, certain defenses, certain blitzes, what to go to, how to go to it — and even he comes up with some ideas now. We share ideas. It’s fun to really watch him grow, and he’s embracing the whole concept that it’s not just throwing the ball or handing it off, it’s a year-round process to be the quarterback and the leader of the football team.”
Mond’s improvement and his relationship with his coach has become obvious to those outside of the A&M football facilities. Dan Orlovsky, an ESPN college football analyst, said on Sirius XM recently that quarterback-coach match is paying dividends.
“Everyone knows how incredible Jimbo Fisher is for QBs, and the reason he is is it’s so important,” Orlovsky said. “Jimbo coaches the hard way. It’s not the, ‘Hey, let’s just line up and figure out what the defense is doing, and I’ll tell you the play so we’re in a really good situation all the time.’ You know, Jimbo coaches the hard way with QBs in always forcing them to know what to do with the football every single play and every single situation.
“You watched him play (last season) and you’re like, ‘Oh, he’s figuring it out. Oh, he’s understanding where to go with the football. Oh, he knows how to beat that blitz.’ Once that happens for a QB one time, it’s clarity. And I think you’re going to see a huge step forward for Kellen. I could see him getting into that conversation that is one of the best QBs in college football, let alone the SEC.”
With one second remaining in regulation against LSU, the Aggies needed 19 yards for the game-tying touchdown. When Mond came to the sidelines to confer about the crucial call, Fisher asked his quarterback what play he wanted to run. Mond’s answer matched the play the coaches in the press box had already relayed to Fisher. Mond’s 19-yard pass to Quartney Davis produced the TD.
“He’s just developing more trust in me,” the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Mond said of Fisher. “That comes from developing more knowledge and me proving to him that I can take that type of knowledge and we can talk ball literally all day. His mind is like a hamster wheel…he’s constantly thinking ball.
“I definitely have a lot of confidence in myself and I definitely know the players and coaches on my team do, too.”