Speaker 1: Drafted is a production of tree Fork Media, Clutch Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. I've only missed one game, A
Speaker 1: killings my entire life. One game. Welcome back to Drafted.
Speaker 1: I'm Steven Johnson and this is episode five of season three. Previously,
Speaker 1: we followed Alabama stars Davante Smith and Alex Leatherwood on
Speaker 1: their journeys to the first round of the NFL Draft. Now,
Speaker 1: in these next few episodes, we'll be continuing with a
Speaker 1: new group of prospects, wide receiver Desmond Fitzpatrick and quarterback
Speaker 1: Kellen Mond. Amen. About to see him a night, man,
Speaker 1: tell him off man, about to see him a night
Speaker 1: in the draft man. And now yeah, yeah, that's Kellen
Speaker 1: Mond getting his haircut on the day of the draft.
Speaker 1: Over the last four years, a few players have been
Speaker 1: as closely associated with their college program as Kellen has
Speaker 1: been with Texas A and m uh Texas. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: college stations that one year and Kellen has been the
Speaker 1: face of Texas A and M football for better and
Speaker 1: for worse since the legendary seven overtime game against l
Speaker 1: s U his sophomore year. That's the game they're talking
Speaker 1: about in the barbershop right now. Everyone wants to talk
Speaker 1: about this one L s U game, which they wont
Speaker 1: Let's just clutch sports agent Kelton Crenshaw. You know, when
Speaker 1: you're not really on, you're not going to try to
Speaker 1: throw yourself back into a game, which a lot of
Speaker 1: times can cause necessary turnovers and you can create momentum
Speaker 1: shifts and things that a nature. So to me, that's
Speaker 1: a sign of maturity and that that shows that you know,
Speaker 1: you know what you're doing out there. I mean, sometimes
Speaker 1: you gotta you know everything's not gonna be clicking. You
Speaker 1: gotta go out there and just kind of manage the
Speaker 1: game and come away with the victory. Kellen received a
Speaker 1: lot of criticism for doing just that. Critics say he
Speaker 1: only managed the game despite winning seventy four to seventy
Speaker 1: two and what became the highest scoring game ever and
Speaker 1: throwing six touchdowns with no interceptions. Now two and a
Speaker 1: half years later, everyone from strangers in a barbershop to
Speaker 1: his cousin the barber, to draft analysts and NFL scouts
Speaker 1: all continue to talk about that game, even mere hours
Speaker 1: before the start of the NFL Draft. Uh seven a night, Yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: let what I thought? It was a six? Boy? You
Speaker 1: get me a whole not out man. Now it's at
Speaker 1: six tomorrow, we're gonna get Kellen and his parents are
Speaker 1: hosting the huge draft party tonight, even though most experts
Speaker 1: say he could go anywhere from the first round of
Speaker 1: Night one to the third or fourth rounds on Day
Speaker 1: two or three, and that draft range is exactly what
Speaker 1: his cousin asked him about between the buzz of the
Speaker 1: clippers on his headline. It's probably like the back half
Speaker 1: of the first to the top of the second, because
Speaker 1: I usually like, if a team called me, like they're like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna select you, then it's gonna get out somewhere.
Speaker 1: And then that's they're gonna be like, oh shoot, we
Speaker 1: we ought to take in with He's gonna be taken
Speaker 1: in the second, so then it's gonna be a little
Speaker 1: easier to quarterback. Yeah, so all the quarterback said have
Speaker 1: been taking him, be like, okay, well they need a
Speaker 1: quarterback then exactly. Kellen's draft range is unusually broad because
Speaker 1: teams see very different things when they look at his
Speaker 1: body of work, which is extensive and features some dramatic
Speaker 1: peaks and valleys. In fact, he's been under of the
Speaker 1: football microscope ever since his senior year of high school,
Speaker 1: when he transferred to IMG Academy in Florida. I AMG
Speaker 1: recruits top players from all over the country and many
Speaker 1: call it a football factory as much as an academy.
Speaker 1: How I am going up, I think they're still good.
Speaker 1: They totally changed, like the rules whenever I was there,
Speaker 1: like they would have probably like recruited guys and it
Speaker 1: was basically a scholarship, but they called it a financial benefit.
Speaker 1: But now supposedly they have to have sixty to eighty
Speaker 1: guys on the team who pay. But like obviously the
Speaker 1: top recruster not going there and paying seventy dollars a year.
Speaker 1: Kellen had to decide whether or not to move away
Speaker 1: and attend IMG Academy for his senior year, and his
Speaker 1: decision had little to do with leaving San Antonio. He explains,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're at your regular high school, guys
Speaker 1: who you play with football at times can be just
Speaker 1: a hobby and so they're they're grind necessarily, it's in
Speaker 1: the same ground that you have. You know, what's different
Speaker 1: from i MG is everyone is trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: one be a great college player, but also make it
Speaker 1: to the NFL. Whenever I moved out to i MG,
Speaker 1: which is destroy competition and just the work ethic was able.
Speaker 1: I was able to elevate my game to a whole
Speaker 1: another level. Kellen's desire to play tougher competition and surround
Speaker 1: himself with hyper focused teammates occurred at least in part
Speaker 1: because of his dad, who also doubled as his coach.
Speaker 1: Inn episode two, we heard how Alex Leatherwood's life changed
Speaker 1: when he got a new coach who saw potential in
Speaker 1: him for the first time. This coach, Charlie Ward, encouraged
Speaker 1: him to take football seriously and view it as a
Speaker 1: path to a different life. Alex might not have ever
Speaker 1: gotten to the NFL if it wasn't for that lucky
Speaker 1: break with his new coach. Maybe DeVante Smith wouldn't have
Speaker 1: become the tenth overall pick if he didn't have his
Speaker 1: mentor Vincent Sanders in his life either. That's the difference
Speaker 1: one person can make, and Kellen Mon's dad, Kevin, never
Speaker 1: wanted to leave any part of Kellen's trajectory up to
Speaker 1: fate or luck. Here's Kellen's dad and coach, Kevin. I
Speaker 1: started grooming him at the early age to play quarterback.
Speaker 1: Everything we did was football in this house. So at
Speaker 1: the age of two, I had him doing things like
Speaker 1: getting on his knees and throwing nerve balls and and
Speaker 1: teaching body tork and things like that. And I'm six
Speaker 1: ft five, so I figured if he had any thing
Speaker 1: close to my size and high, he would probably turn
Speaker 1: into maybe a good athlete. And Kellen took to it
Speaker 1: right away. Wanted to be somebody special. And then when
Speaker 1: all the athletic talents started taking over, I realized that
Speaker 1: he had a chance to be somebody. Kevin was laying
Speaker 1: the foundation for Kellen's career long before he was even born.
Speaker 1: Kellen's mom, Leticia, explains how football became ingrained in the
Speaker 1: family DNA from the very beginning. One of our first
Speaker 1: dates was like Friday night football. Okay, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: just the way it is. Even before we had kids,
Speaker 1: I had been to like every single state championship game.
Speaker 1: We traveled all throughout Texas. It was literally just part
Speaker 1: of were part of our relationship, and then obviously it
Speaker 1: was part of the kids, you know. Thank god. Once
Speaker 1: Kellen was to Kellen started going to the football game,
Speaker 1: so I no longer had to go to all of
Speaker 1: the Friday night football games. But it was literally a
Speaker 1: family affair. And you know that's how things are in Texas, right,
Speaker 1: it is really all about football. As Kellen got older,
Speaker 1: they enrolled him in youth leagues and camps and all
Speaker 1: the other possible football related outlets. Like his mom, Letitia said,
Speaker 1: it was all about football. And eventually this led Kellen
Speaker 1: to the Texas State playoffs his junior year in high school.
Speaker 1: Here's Kellen's dad, Kevin Mond. Again. He had played a
Speaker 1: playoff game here at Reagan High. We were ranked like
Speaker 1: eighth in the state of Texas. We were undefeated Tenno,
Speaker 1: we lost the game opening round of the playoffs. Who
Speaker 1: want our arrivals from off the highway about twenty minutes
Speaker 1: from here. And from that point on I knew there
Speaker 1: were some things that I saw in Kellen where he
Speaker 1: had to get better. I wasn't the type of dad
Speaker 1: to sit back and rest on my laurels or us
Speaker 1: as a family to say, Okay, Kellumn is the best
Speaker 1: player in San Antonio. That's good enough. No, it's not
Speaker 1: about that. It's about being the best player you can be.
Speaker 1: And a lot of this to me as as a
Speaker 1: dad and a former coach has to do with development. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not always about winning games. A lot of this
Speaker 1: is still development. Kellen's decision to move away his senior
Speaker 1: year of high school and attend I AMG Academy in
Speaker 1: Florida seemed obvious against this backdrop, so he joins IMG
Speaker 1: Academy and thrives, becoming a five star recruit. He's named
Speaker 1: the top dual threat quarterback and the entire recruiting class,
Speaker 1: and ultimately accepts a scholarship to play for coach Kevin
Speaker 1: Sumlin at Texas A and M. Kellen describes his early
Speaker 1: arrival on the college station campus. So, I early in road,
Speaker 1: went through spring ball and going through fall camp, and
Speaker 1: I actually thought that I was going to be the starter,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people thought that I was going
Speaker 1: to be the starter, at least should be the starter.
Speaker 1: But at the time they were saying the other quarterback,
Speaker 1: he's gonna start, but you know, you're gonna play a
Speaker 1: little bit. So you know, I was still kind of
Speaker 1: kind of piste off that I wasn't starting. So first
Speaker 1: game against u C. L A, the starter ended up
Speaker 1: breaking his foot, I think in the third quarter, and
Speaker 1: so I ended up coming in and we're you know,
Speaker 1: three fourth scores, and that's when, you know, Josh Rosen
Speaker 1: led the Rose Bowl come back and came back and
Speaker 1: beat us Kellen get up a thirty or four point
Speaker 1: lead the current NFL quarterback Josh Rosen and the U
Speaker 1: c l A Bruins. Rosen became the tenth overall pick,
Speaker 1: and Callen quickly develops a stigma as a run first
Speaker 1: quarterback who can't throw after he only completes three passes
Speaker 1: in the game. I mean, this is my first game,
Speaker 1: I'm eighteen, you a, and fans already can can be
Speaker 1: pretty brutal, so just adding on to you know, me
Speaker 1: being a quarterback and being a true freshman, it was
Speaker 1: pretty brutal after that, and you know, I got death threats,
Speaker 1: you know, people calling me the N word like it was.
Speaker 1: It was pretty bad. And then so going into week two,
Speaker 1: I ended up starting that game, went down, we threw
Speaker 1: a touchdown in the first drive, and then we kind
Speaker 1: of stalled for the rest of the game and ended
Speaker 1: up getting benched that game. And so the backup at
Speaker 1: the time we ended up coming in, he was an
Speaker 1: older guy, so crowd loved him gave him kind of
Speaker 1: like the standing ovation. So for me, it was kind
Speaker 1: of like a slap in the face at the time.
Speaker 1: And that guy who ended up playing, he ended up
Speaker 1: getting hurt. So it was just kind of me by myself,
Speaker 1: and so I ended up playing pretty well throughout the season.
Speaker 1: We beat you know, South Carolina in the fourth quarter comeback.
Speaker 1: We went played at Florida and let a fourth quarter comeback,
Speaker 1: but ended up getting benched against Auburn whenever the true
Speaker 1: starter Week one ended up getting back and so that
Speaker 1: was pretty much my freshman year. This all began to
Speaker 1: take a mental toll on Kellen and for his parents,
Speaker 1: watching it unfold in the stands felt almost as upsetting
Speaker 1: as experiencing it on the field. Here's Kevin Mond again
Speaker 1: and what it was like for him to see Kelln
Speaker 1: struggle his freshman year. Yeah, he was booed. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: tough as a parent, you know, when you're sitting at
Speaker 1: a game. A little over a quarter into the Auburn
Speaker 1: game and he got benched, but during the game getting booed,
Speaker 1: and as a parent, you know, it's tough. That is
Speaker 1: your kid, you know, and these people when they go
Speaker 1: to college, you know, these are eighteen year old. The
Speaker 1: team struggles continued to be blamed on their young quarterback
Speaker 1: throughout that season, and somehow labeled Kellen has the new
Speaker 1: permanent scapegoat. I probably didn't have much respect, you know
Speaker 1: as an eighteen year old guy, you know, first game ever,
Speaker 1: who gave up a huge lead. So I mean since
Speaker 1: my first game in college, it's it's been rough. So
Speaker 1: it's always been kind of hard to gain that respect back,
Speaker 1: even just from ain and fans um, from just even
Speaker 1: the media too. So it's just always seemed like in
Speaker 1: my career, everything that I've in, if it was you know,
Speaker 1: if it was good, then it just wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1: But I mean I got death threads honesty for multiple years.
Speaker 1: But but you know, my freshman year for sure, stophomore year,
Speaker 1: junior year, and like I've been booed in my my
Speaker 1: own stadium multiple times. So um, yeah, it's been it's
Speaker 1: been pretty brutal. We'll be right back. Kellen's freshman year
Speaker 1: becomes a dark string of getting benched, booed, and threatened,
Speaker 1: and the season ends with even more drama. Texas A
Speaker 1: and M fires their head coach, The school brings in
Speaker 1: former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher as the new head coach,
Speaker 1: and suddenly Kellen is starting over for the third time
Speaker 1: in three years. Here's Kevin Mond on those challenging days
Speaker 1: for his son. I always look back. I think that
Speaker 1: made him stronger, made him want to go to work
Speaker 1: and not make some of the mistakes he made, and
Speaker 1: I think that has to do with his development going forward.
Speaker 1: And nothing's ever gonna come easy. You're gonna have your
Speaker 1: ups and down. His own life and the bounce back
Speaker 1: plan for him was to just go to work. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not as good as I need to be, I
Speaker 1: gotta go to work. Kellen would be in the film
Speaker 1: room eleven o'clock at night, go home, and be right
Speaker 1: back at six am in the morning. And that was
Speaker 1: on a routine, regular basis. That kid is around the
Speaker 1: A and M campus. If not studying doing work, he's
Speaker 1: in the film room where he's at practice almost eighteen
Speaker 1: hours a day, go home, sleep six hours, and then
Speaker 1: back at it. Kellen was prepared to work as hard
Speaker 1: as he could, and he knew of coach Fisher's reputation
Speaker 1: as a quarterback google. However, he was recruited by and
Speaker 1: signed with the coach who was let go coach someone.
Speaker 1: So this change wasn't exactly what he signed up for,
Speaker 1: going from coach someone who was more of a laid
Speaker 1: back person um to where coach Fisher was, you know,
Speaker 1: super hands on with these quarterbacks. You know a lot
Speaker 1: of people know about all the yelling that he does,
Speaker 1: you know, in practice and with the quarterbacks and in
Speaker 1: the game. So it was a total one eight for me.
Speaker 1: Here's coach Jimbo Fisher on what he saw when he
Speaker 1: first met and began working with the raw sophomore quarterback.
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I don't care what's happened in
Speaker 1: the past, your slatest straight with me, and you trust me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put you in a position to have success.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let me figure you out. I'm not thinking
Speaker 1: that's one of the things. I don't ever judge somebody
Speaker 1: that way, because you know how guy has been coached,
Speaker 1: or what he's been told, or what's going on with
Speaker 1: the guy. It's very hard to ever judge. And I said,
Speaker 1: but the big thing you gotta do is be consistent
Speaker 1: and give me everything you got. And I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you what it was like he started a coach, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do this every day and if I told him something,
Speaker 1: he did it. But he was I work a holic
Speaker 1: every day and he bought into everything. And I also
Speaker 1: give him a lot of input on I said, where
Speaker 1: do you feel here? What do you feel? How do
Speaker 1: you do? How do you like this play? How do
Speaker 1: you like what we're doing here? And if we worked
Speaker 1: and tweaked and it we just and actually he did
Speaker 1: it from day one. He did it from day one.
Speaker 1: The new coach and the sophomore quarterback did a dance.
Speaker 1: During these first weeks of practice, Coach Fisher would get
Speaker 1: on killing about mistakes and Kellen would try to adjust
Speaker 1: and improve, and Coach Fisher would yell a lot. Kellen's dad, Kevin,
Speaker 1: watched as this all took place. He recalls one specific
Speaker 1: afternoon when Kellen walked off looking flustered during one of
Speaker 1: the first practices when Coach Fisher got to Texas a
Speaker 1: and l he came over to me after practice said, man,
Speaker 1: Coach Fisher is hard. He's always yelling at cursing at
Speaker 1: me and staff and was one of the first few
Speaker 1: practices and I said, son, remember when you used to
Speaker 1: tell me when you were young, Dad, why are you
Speaker 1: so hard on me? And Kellen said yes, I said, Callen,
Speaker 1: I was just trying to prepare you for the real world.
Speaker 1: I said, remember, Jim Ball can yell at you, but
Speaker 1: he'll never be as hard as your dad is. And
Speaker 1: from that moment on he laughed and the reality kicked in.
Speaker 1: That's right. My dad was always harder than anybody, So
Speaker 1: anything that anybody else dishes out, I can take it.
Speaker 1: In some ways, Kellen did spend his childhood playing for
Speaker 1: coach Kevin on and off the field. He was super
Speaker 1: strict and sometimes I think sometimes or people would kind
Speaker 1: of label it overprotective. But you know now that I'm
Speaker 1: at an older age and you kind of look back
Speaker 1: and you realize that my dad's thinks. Whatever he was
Speaker 1: teaching me and the way he was acting, it wasn't
Speaker 1: too crazy. But you know, sometimes as a young kid,
Speaker 1: you just want to be free and outlandish and um.
Speaker 1: But you know, I've known a person who had never
Speaker 1: done drugs or never did anything because I was scared
Speaker 1: of what my dad would do. Kellen wasn't only shaped
Speaker 1: by kevin strict parenting and disciplined life. The mons have
Speaker 1: a long storied military tradition in the family on both sides,
Speaker 1: and beyond that, everyone in the Mond family is always
Speaker 1: playing to win. Here's Kellen's mom, Leticia, with her husband
Speaker 1: again Kellyn. Yes, he lives and breathes football, but all
Speaker 1: of us we cannot stand. We are the worst losers
Speaker 1: as a family. And so sitting around and playing like
Speaker 1: a game of backgammon or whatever, checkers, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: that stuff does not happen in our household because only
Speaker 1: one person can win, you know, and that's just not
Speaker 1: going to happen in our house. So, yeah, that's not
Speaker 1: such a good thing. But it's true. I played chess
Speaker 1: every night, like twelve midnight, one o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: on the computer, and I don't go to bed until
Speaker 1: I win a game. If the computer beats me two
Speaker 1: times in a role, I play until I beat the computer.
Speaker 1: True story, true story. I go to bed one o'clock,
Speaker 1: two o'clock in the morning until I beat the computer.
Speaker 1: I don't go to bed. And when it comes to
Speaker 1: laying their son or daughters win at anything at a
Speaker 1: young age, never ever, ever, that would be cheating the system.
Speaker 1: Never ever. I think I actually probably did because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to have to deal with any of our kids,
Speaker 1: you know, falling out. So I think I would have
Speaker 1: I would have been the ones to say, it's okay,
Speaker 1: let's let him win. Ever, that's how you developed tough skin,
Speaker 1: and we didn't allow it to happen, whether we played
Speaker 1: basketball in the backyard or whatever it was. You know,
Speaker 1: that's how you get them tough, and it gets them
Speaker 1: to learn how to compete at a high level and
Speaker 1: what it takes. What it takes is grit and thick
Speaker 1: skin and toughness. Unfortunately for Kellen, Kevin and latitious parenting
Speaker 1: equipped him with these skills, the exact tools he need
Speaker 1: to handle adversity on the field, harsh criticism off the field,
Speaker 1: and even with a new head coach who liked to yell.
Speaker 1: Earlier in my career, there was such a stigma of
Speaker 1: me not being able to win big games and me
Speaker 1: being inaccurate and inconsistem which is a true stigma of
Speaker 1: a freshman Kellen Mond. But you know me three years later,
Speaker 1: it's been so hard for people, just because people naturally
Speaker 1: listen to media experts instead of actually doing their own research.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when those things stick to somebody's head. Then it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to reverse. H Kellen makes huge
Speaker 1: strides under coach Fisher during his sophomore year, including winning
Speaker 1: that epic seven overtime game against a supremely talented L
Speaker 1: s U team. It appears the long hours and tough
Speaker 1: criticism and new hands on coaching is working. Then his
Speaker 1: junior year he doesn't make the jump to the next
Speaker 1: level that everyone was expecting. So after my sophomore year,
Speaker 1: I just had certain goals of myself from my team,
Speaker 1: and you know, going into a brutal schedule, we ended
Speaker 1: up playing three number one so Alabama when we played
Speaker 1: that much number one at the time, Clemson went to
Speaker 1: top team L s U and Joe Burrow. So all games,
Speaker 1: you know, going into where I thought that we would
Speaker 1: have a chance and we would go in and win
Speaker 1: that we end up losing all those obviously of phenomenal teams.
Speaker 1: Kellen was battling some of the best teams in the
Speaker 1: country on a weekly basis, and he was also fighting
Speaker 1: against the fans who couldn't let go of the struggling
Speaker 1: underclassman Kellyn used to be, and he was competing against
Speaker 1: his own idea of himself some theoretical version of who
Speaker 1: Kellen Mond was supposed to become. Here's coach Fisher, who
Speaker 1: saw this all unfold. Throughout Kellen's junior season. We had
Speaker 1: a very tough schedule. We had some tough breaks in
Speaker 1: some situations didn't go our way. But I think he
Speaker 1: puts some pressure on himself. I think we didn't play
Speaker 1: as well around him as we should have. I think
Speaker 1: we had a lot of drop balls and some big
Speaker 1: games and some big situations, and he missed him throw.
Speaker 1: He made some mistakes, and I thought, dealing with expectations,
Speaker 1: they never had to do it. Here, he never had
Speaker 1: to do it, you know what I mean? Dealing with
Speaker 1: all right, we're supposed to be good. That's a different level.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't from not want to. It's from sometimes
Speaker 1: you put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect.
Speaker 1: You can't play this game per thing. You just gotta
Speaker 1: play the best you can and trust your instincts and play.
Speaker 1: The tough losses from his junior year, along with the
Speaker 1: ever increasing pressure and expectations, finally got to Kellen. And
Speaker 1: so after my junior year, I was trying to overcome
Speaker 1: certain expectations of myself, um, and you know we're just
Speaker 1: never able to overcome them, and so um, you know,
Speaker 1: after all of that, and so me just going through
Speaker 1: that mental strain it wants to be perfect and practice
Speaker 1: and sometimes even see guys not take practice as serious
Speaker 1: as me and then go to the games and don't
Speaker 1: see that certain things translate. By times, it was hard
Speaker 1: for me, and you know, like people necessarily don't understand,
Speaker 1: especially playing for coach Fisher, what type of mental strain
Speaker 1: that it takes to be a phenomenal player and to
Speaker 1: go out and have success. On Saturdays, Latitia watched her
Speaker 1: son's struggle and it became difficult for her personally. She
Speaker 1: especially felt the weight of Kellen's inner conflict. Kellen had
Speaker 1: been like say, after you know that games, when allously
Speaker 1: the fans were on and whatever, I think that I'm
Speaker 1: I am similar in that I am also very hard
Speaker 1: on myself. So I'm gonna going to be more you know,
Speaker 1: reflective and try to you you're always trying to fix
Speaker 1: the issues instead of leaning on others to allow them
Speaker 1: to help you fix some of those issues. So I
Speaker 1: can see why he did it, but I do feel
Speaker 1: like he he took on way too much. Um that
Speaker 1: he probably should have it. And sometimes you do wish
Speaker 1: that your kids were more you know, you see other
Speaker 1: other kids who they're like they're already off to thinking
Speaker 1: about the next party or thinking about something else, and
Speaker 1: Kelln has never been like that. He's always considering like, Okay, now,
Speaker 1: how am I going to make this better? How am
Speaker 1: I going to make this better? You know? I I
Speaker 1: messed up. I messed up. I'm going to figure out
Speaker 1: how to improve. So, UM, I think it's actually it
Speaker 1: probably is a good trait, but it really is a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure. If it's a lot for um, for
Speaker 1: you know, a kid basically to have to deal with.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Kellen finishes his haircut at the
Speaker 1: barbershop with his cousin and starts driving back to his
Speaker 1: parents house when he gets a call on his cell phone. Hello,
Speaker 1: you know what up? Ryan? This is Texas A and
Speaker 1: M sports psychologist Ryan pitt Singer, someone Kellen obviously leaned
Speaker 1: on throughout the ups and downs of the last four years.
Speaker 1: How are you doing good? Just driving around right now?
Speaker 1: Um in Santatino? Are just trying to keep clear? Now
Speaker 1: I'm driving home from how to get a haircut, So
Speaker 1: I'm just driving back to my house now, so no,
Speaker 1: I just I just want to check in on you
Speaker 1: and just kind of see how you're doing. Yeah, I'm honestly,
Speaker 1: I've been been chilling lately. Even my dad was asking me,
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, what's going through your mind? I'm like, honestly,
Speaker 1: it's just a normal day. I just got a haircut today,
Speaker 1: I had to go to like the jewelry store and
Speaker 1: get like a couple of watches fixed. So it's really
Speaker 1: just like a normal day for me. That's so awesome, dude. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: modern day athletes get support for their minds the same
Speaker 1: way they have trainers and strength coaches for their bodies,
Speaker 1: top programs across the country, all for the help of
Speaker 1: experts like Ryan. To these young players facing such intense
Speaker 1: pressure every week, you already kind of know how it's
Speaker 1: gonna play out, or you just like, yeah, I've done
Speaker 1: everything I can. Yeah, exactly, that's pretty much my mindset.
Speaker 1: I know, like throughout this whole entire training and you know,
Speaker 1: pretty much the past years, like I've done everything that
Speaker 1: I can. So I was like, literally, you just wait
Speaker 1: till a team dast you and I'm just watching the
Speaker 1: draft as a fan and by just happened to be
Speaker 1: a person who's gonna get called at some point. So
Speaker 1: that's pretty much my presset. That's awesome. Man, Is there
Speaker 1: like alternative stuff going on in your house? Like do
Speaker 1: you have like like media there and stuff or now
Speaker 1: there will be later they'll be like photographers there. But
Speaker 1: we're supposed to have a lot of like family and
Speaker 1: friends like all like at my house and so good
Speaker 1: thing and in Texas, I know a good thing in Texas,
Speaker 1: Like there's no restrictions anymore. So I'm able to I'm
Speaker 1: able to have you know, as many family, friends and
Speaker 1: everybody around. Yeah, there we go, man, I'm so happy
Speaker 1: for you, so excited. Yeah now you you you've burned
Speaker 1: it all, that's for sure. Man. Now it's just time
Speaker 1: to relax and enjoy the process, no doubt. Well, hey,
Speaker 1: I know that I'm rooting for you, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you know anything at all sounds good. Yes, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I let it. But that was the Texas A and
Speaker 1: M sports psychologist Ryan pitt Singer man with me since
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen at Texas A and M been a
Speaker 1: huge advocate, also a huge fan for me, been a
Speaker 1: huge helper mentor. It's kind of the fly on the
Speaker 1: wall top of guy. You know, you never see him,
Speaker 1: you know, whenever you do certain things on the field
Speaker 1: or around the building, and then he'll just randomly come
Speaker 1: up to you and talk to you about, you know,
Speaker 1: certain things that you did, and you just like you
Speaker 1: don't know how you saw it. Um. Yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: with me since two thousand and seventeen, seeing me through
Speaker 1: all my adversity, seeing me through pretty much everything that
Speaker 1: data ups and downs. Ryan has been there for Kellen's
Speaker 1: whole collegiate journey. He was especially involved after Kellyn's junior
Speaker 1: season when the mental health struggles, pressure, and stress became overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Kellen leaned on Ryan as much as he could at
Speaker 1: that time. When suddenly COVID arrived on you as Shores
Speaker 1: and like almost every college student, Kellen had to leave
Speaker 1: campus and go home. I always tell people quarantine changed
Speaker 1: my life, and so I think just being able to
Speaker 1: go home for two months just be around family and
Speaker 1: not necessarily get away from football, but just get away
Speaker 1: from college station. Um, get away from your facility and
Speaker 1: just do things on your own and create your own schedule.
Speaker 1: I think that's what was amazing for me. So I
Speaker 1: know so many other college football players who UM go
Speaker 1: through mental trauma and at times, if it wasn't for quarantine,
Speaker 1: like me, UM, certain guys they will never know that
Speaker 1: they're actually going through certain trauma just because they never
Speaker 1: got away from it. In some ways, the quarantine changed
Speaker 1: the whole family's perspective. Latitia shares her experience when Kellen
Speaker 1: came home. When we're all going through COVID and Kellen
Speaker 1: was home, and everyone, I think had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: kind of really look inside of themselves and see themselves
Speaker 1: in different light because there everyone's environment changed. And I
Speaker 1: think that that really gave Kellen an accelerant, essentially to
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, he started looking inside a bit closer,
Speaker 1: He started reading a lot more. Um. There are just
Speaker 1: a lot of ways that he was able to try
Speaker 1: to look at himself a little bit differently and to
Speaker 1: try to really look at where he was vulnerable and
Speaker 1: look at where his imperfections were and really try to
Speaker 1: focus on those and think about how to make himself
Speaker 1: a better person overall, not just football, just a better person.
Speaker 1: After five years of high pressure, high stakes football, Kellen
Speaker 1: finally had the time to step back and do some
Speaker 1: serious introspection. I think, you know, that fear of failure
Speaker 1: and that perfection and just certain things that I was doing.
Speaker 1: It became a habit. So me getting away from the
Speaker 1: habit where I wasn't doing it every day. So times
Speaker 1: always talk about just even at quarterbacks, if you're trying
Speaker 1: to break a habit, you know, a throwing motion, sometimes
Speaker 1: you have to not do it for so long. So
Speaker 1: what you're basically got to read teach yourself. So I
Speaker 1: was able to kind of get away from that and
Speaker 1: I started to focus a lot more on recovery. I
Speaker 1: started to do yoga and just really just really work
Speaker 1: on my mental I started to read, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of books on just like holistic health and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Fear of failure, struggles with perfection, intense pressure
Speaker 1: from fans. These have been forbidden or taboo topics for
Speaker 1: star athletes in the past, but that's all changing. This summer,
Speaker 1: U S gymnastics superstar Simone Biles dropped out of the
Speaker 1: Olympics due to mental strain. Three time NFL MVP Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers immediately came out publicly to support her and said
Speaker 1: he also has needed to work on his mental struggles
Speaker 1: this past off season. And so despite all the suffering
Speaker 1: from the pandemic, maybe some positives came out of the
Speaker 1: quarantine and distancing. It gave athletes like Kellen a chance
Speaker 1: to gain a new perspective on their own lives and
Speaker 1: to take stock of their health and what's truly important.
Speaker 1: Here's coach Fisher on how he saw the quarantine impact
Speaker 1: killing and his entire team. I think the quarantine made
Speaker 1: us all take a step back and really look at
Speaker 1: the things with how you know when you take things
Speaker 1: away that you really love it, but you took them
Speaker 1: for granted, and how lucky you were to have them
Speaker 1: and be able to do the things you do. And
Speaker 1: we talked about as a team, we talked individually, we
Speaker 1: talked and everything and how where this and almost you
Speaker 1: know it wasn't a good thing because people lost their
Speaker 1: lives and things, But from a perspective of making you
Speaker 1: reboot like you say you would on a computer to
Speaker 1: get back to your values and and and you so
Speaker 1: many great things you had in your life, and you
Speaker 1: realize because he puts so much pressure on yourself sometimes
Speaker 1: you don't realize how good you really got it, what
Speaker 1: you're able to do. I think that allowed that to
Speaker 1: happen for him. He learned to control what he could control,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and learn not to listen.
Speaker 1: I understand there's going to be a mistake, but minimize
Speaker 1: that mistake, maximize the other things and what you do well.
Speaker 1: And I think he learned to take advantage of that,
Speaker 1: and I think it give him a relaxation that and
Speaker 1: he hit that conpoint in his life and he took off.
Speaker 1: After the quarantine, Kellen comes back to campus for a
Speaker 1: senior year. Suddenly he plays with a newfound sense of
Speaker 1: football's zen. He leads his team to nine wins and
Speaker 1: only one loss, finishing fourth in the country while throwing
Speaker 1: for nineteen touchdowns with a QB rating of one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty six, all without his top receivers who opted
Speaker 1: out for the season. He leaves Texas A and M
Speaker 1: as one of only three SEC quarterbacks to ever surpass
Speaker 1: nine thousand yards passing and yards rushing. The other two
Speaker 1: players on that list Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl quarterback Dak
Speaker 1: Prescott and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. It's hallowed company
Speaker 1: for a publicly maligned quarterback bowed in his own stadium
Speaker 1: only two seasons prior, and it's an entirely different Kellent,
Speaker 1: one who harnessed the challenges from the past four years
Speaker 1: and grew into an unquestionably better person and player, at
Speaker 1: least according to his parents. No matter whether it's football,
Speaker 1: no matter whether it's friendships, no matter whether it's work,
Speaker 1: you always deal with adversity route and you have to
Speaker 1: figure out and it helps you grow as a person.
Speaker 1: That kid has had to deal with so much adversity,
Speaker 1: like she just mentioned, sometimes fairly and a lot of
Speaker 1: times unfairly, and he overcame it all. Coach Fisher also
Speaker 1: saw the transformation firsthand, the saying that most amazes me
Speaker 1: about one of the things I respect the most. No
Speaker 1: matter whether he got booed with she did with that,
Speaker 1: but or whether he had success or he had failure,
Speaker 1: he's the same guy every day he came back to work,
Speaker 1: and I think he's had to grind for what he's
Speaker 1: had to do. He's had to put a chip on
Speaker 1: his shoulder. He had to say, well, you're not the
Speaker 1: prototypical of this. You're not the prototypical of that, and
Speaker 1: he learned to be the best Kellen Mond he can be,
Speaker 1: which is one heck of a football player, one heck
Speaker 1: of a human being. And I think that's why it's
Speaker 1: going to translate, and I think that's why he translated
Speaker 1: into his last year. Over the past four years, Kellen
Speaker 1: completely remade himself and helped rebuild the Texas A and
Speaker 1: M football program along the way. That's why it's a
Speaker 1: shock to many people that he's only the seventh third
Speaker 1: highest drank quarterback prospect in the draft, And with the
Speaker 1: draft about to start in a few short hours, one
Speaker 1: has to wonder do NFL teams still have that perception
Speaker 1: of the eighteen year old kid who struggled and gave
Speaker 1: up the big leads. Have pro scouts erased the image
Speaker 1: of the sophomore QB holding on for dear life and
Speaker 1: the legendary seven overtime win against L s U Or
Speaker 1: can team executives look at Kellen's whole journey and transformation
Speaker 1: from a freshman getting benched to a senior leading the
Speaker 1: fourth ranked team in the country without his starting receivers
Speaker 1: and see the player, person, and leader he's become. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you be honest with you, he's one of
Speaker 1: the guys he probably jumped as much as anybody. He
Speaker 1: really has and his understanding of how to be successful
Speaker 1: and really learning how to be successful because some of
Speaker 1: the other guys I had we were at very successful programs,
Speaker 1: so it was a lot easier. It's a lot more
Speaker 1: people around him who knew and then where they could
Speaker 1: just do their job and invent. But Kellen had to
Speaker 1: be figure it out, then be the leader, and then
Speaker 1: to teach everybody else. So that was a very challenging thing,
Speaker 1: and to me, it's one of the most remarkable things
Speaker 1: I've been a part of. Next Undrafted. My dad always
Speaker 1: talks about he had me thrown the ball at the
Speaker 1: age of two. Don't get lazy on me. Work, work
Speaker 1: those carbs, give me something. Hand and shoulders. Hand shoulder
Speaker 1: was coming down to you know, a couple of days,
Speaker 1: you know, when he's a baby, because Mama have him
Speaker 1: in a car seat and I have a football in
Speaker 1: his hand. Everybody wants to go first round, but ultimately
Speaker 1: that first contract is not even close to what that
Speaker 1: second deal is gonna be. He's got a shot of
Speaker 1: making it because he's twice the athlete I ever could
Speaker 1: have done. He knew that there was a slim and
Speaker 1: no possible to him going in the first round. Things
Speaker 1: just didn't go well, you know, and it was just
Speaker 1: a downward spiral. You love football this month, and you
Speaker 1: love money that much, and you got a chance to
Speaker 1: play a lot of football and make a lot of money.
Speaker 1: This is a once in a lifetime Like literally, this
Speaker 1: is never ever gonna happen again. Drafted is a production
Speaker 1: of tree Ford Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Kelly Gardner, Lisa Amerman, Eric's a Lot,
Speaker 1: Eric Winer, and Shawn to Tone. The series is produced
Speaker 1: and written by Eric Winer. Garme Mamalu is our coordinating producer.
Speaker 1: Coral Silverberg is our associate producer. Tom Monahan is our
Speaker 1: senior audio engineer. The show is mixed, edited and hosted
Speaker 1: by Me Stephen Johnson. Additional production held from Tim Shower
Speaker 1: and Hailey Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more
Speaker 1: information Undrafted, go to tree for dot fm and for
Speaker 1: more podcasts. For my Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.