It didn’t come the easy way, but Kevin Sumlin and Texas A&M football have found their quarterback of the future: true freshman Kellen Mond.
Nick Starkel, Texas A&M football’s starting quarterback, was lost for the season during the second half of the Aggies’ Week 1 meltdown in Pasadena. It’s not like he was going to move heaven and earth for this young team, but he was at the very least going to move the ball down field.
Kellen Mond was the next man up and his inauguration did not go smoothly. He completed three of 17 passes for 27 yards against UCLA in his Texas A&M debut. Mond added an additional 54 yards rushing. That still wasn’t enough for the win. Consequently the true freshman heard the catcalls from the cheap seats loud and clear.
Just about everyone was calling for the young man to be benched. Mond, who had just come in as an emergency backup in the Rose Bowl as a true freshman and was asked to captain the offense that had for some reason chosen to abandon their running game, was hearing the boo birds. Kevin Sumlin did play his other quarterback in Week 2 against Nicholls State, but neither he or Mond looked very impressive. Jake Hubenak completed 12 of 15 passes for 93 yards while Mond completed 12 of 21 passes for 105 yards.
Mond arrives with an emphatic week 3 performance
Against Louisiana-Lafayette in Week 3, Mond finally broke through. The 5-star recruit fought through challenges to post an outstanding performance. At one point, his entire offensive line was benched for poor performance. Five freshman trotted out in their place. And he still found a way to be productive.
Mond set career bests in completion percentage (61.8 percent), yards (301) and touchdown passes (three). Detractors will say that the level of competition makes those bests irrelevant, but they won’t be irrelevant for Mond. He showed that he can make the throws and operate the offense as it is intended to operate.
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Kellen Mond won’t sniff the Heisman conversation and he’s not going to hear his name mentioned for any national awards. But he’s proven he can captain an Aggie offense that is in desperate need a leader both on the field and in the locker room. For Mond, the best is yet to come.