5 reasons Pat Mahomes will be a 2016 Hesiman finalist

No. 1

He is not playing baseball anymore

In January, Pat Mahomes announced that he would focus solely on football ending his baseball career. This means that the 2016 off season is the perhaps the first spring the former all-state baseball player and MLB draft pick has ever spent without a bat in his hand.

During last year’s spring football practices, Mahomes was part of the Texas Tech baseball team. Kliff Kingsbury and Texas Tech baseball head coach Tim Tadlock played nice together and worked out a schedule for him to participate in both sports.

But can a college athlete reach his peak with divided interests? It would be very difficult for virtually any to do so.

Now, Mahomes is fully immersed in football. That means he is in the weight room with new strength and conditioning coach Rusty Whitt completing football specific training and the word around the program is that he has put on close to ten pounds of muscle thus far.

Furthermore, he has more time to work with his backs and receivers. This nuance might be more important than at first sight because the 2016 receiving corps collectively will have played little football with Mahomes.

Finally, everything he is learning and studying (outside of the classroom of course) is football-centered. Mahomes is receiving as much time in the film room and on the practice field as is allowed by NCAA rule and that seems to have made him even better this spring.

In the video below, Mahomes addresses how his football only spring has made him a better quarterback. (Fast forward to the 1:18 mark for this specific topic.)

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Now that he can focus on the details of being a quarterback all off season, Pat Mahomes should be a much better football player this season. If that comes to fruition, he might be at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City in early December.