NEW ORLEANS — Despite President Donald Trump and Tommy Tuberville’s claims, Tuberville, the current Alabama senator and former Texas Tech head coach, never coached or recruited Patrick Mahomes, Mahomes confirmed on Thursday.
Trump recounted a conversation on Wednesday with Tuberville about coaching Mahomes. Tuberville left Texas Tech for Cincinnati after the 2012 season. Mahomes started at Texas Tech in 2014.
“Tommy Tuberville, a great coach,” Trump said. “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 want to know how good.”
Tuberville later walked back the claim, saying that he had only recruited Mahomes but had never coached him.
“I never coached him,” Tuberville said on The Megyn Kelly Show on Thursday. “What happened is I recruited him, and then I left to go to another school, but I got to be very good friends with him.”
Mahomes says otherwise, and doesn’t even remember meeting Tuberville.
“He did not recruit me at the time,” Mahomes said on Thursday. “I don’t remember if I ever got to meet him or not.”
Mahomes later played under Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who coached at Texas Tech from 2013 to 2018 before being fired and heading to the NFL. Mahomes was drafted by the Chiefs in 2017.
Trump is expected to attend Super Bowl LIX at the Superdome, becoming the first active president to attend the game, as a guest of Saints owner Gayle Benson. Tuberville posted on X that he will be accompanying the president to the game. Trump has publicly praised the Chiefs on multiple occasions but notably has not mentioned the Eagles, who were uninvited to the White House after winning Super Bowl LII after numerous player opt-outs.
“It’s always cool to be able to play in front of a sitting president, someone that is at the top position in our country,” Mahomes said Wednesday of getting to play in front of Trump.