What happened with this player convinced TCU’s Patterson not to recruit Patrick Mahomes

The man responsible for recruiting Patrick Mahomes to Texas Tech first scouted him when he was an assistant at TCU.

Back in 2012, Trey Haverty was impressed with Mahomes, then a junior quarterback at Whitehouse, and thought he was a fit for TCU. But there was a problem.

Famously, Mahomes was quite the pitcher, and TCU had just been burned by baseball players.

“We liked him but we had just taken Austin Aune, and he pulled out and played baseball,” said Haverty, who is now the safeties coach at SMU. “(TCU coach) Gary Patterson was scared that Mahomes would go play baseball, and then I went to Texas Tech.”

On Wednesday, TCU announced its class of 2021 on National Signing Day, the day that offers both hope and regret for every college football team.

As Mahomes prepares to play in his second straight Super Bowl for the Kansas City Chiefs, this signing day is the perfect chance to look back at the class — and the player — who caused Patterson to think twice about recruiting what has become the biggest name in football.

Austin Aune of Argyle is the reason TCU was a hard stop on Patrick Mahomes.

Blame the Damn Yankees.

Gary was like most coaches in 2012 and 2013. They all thought Mahomes, a football-basketball-baseball star, would ultimately choose to play professional baseball over college football. Haverty stayed with Mahomes, and didn’t have a hard time convincing then Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury to pursue him. Mahomes signed with Tech in 2014.

“Kliff had been at Texas A&M and he wanted a mobile quarterback like he had in Johnny (Manziel),” Haverty said.

Aune was part of a 2012 TCU recruiting class that featured Devonte Fields, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, B.J. Catalon, Kolby Listenbee, Terrell Lathan, Deante Gray, Jaden Oberkrom, Derrick Kindred, Aviante Collins and others.

Trevone Boykin was already on campus, having signed in 2011.

Many of those players would go on to become major contributors to one of the best teams in TCU’s history, the one that finished 12-1 in 2014 and No. 3 in the final AP Poll.

Aune, a three-star recruit, should have been a member of that team. But the New York Yankees offered Aune a $1 million signing bonus when they selected him with the 89th overall pick in the second round of the 2012 MLB amateur draft.

The $1 million was almost double the slot value for that selection.

There was no decision to make; Aune took the check and played baseball.

Nine years later, he’s a 27-year-old redshirt sophomore who just finished his first season as the starting quarterback at North Texas.

In six minor league seasons in the Yankees’ system, Aune played 387 games. In 2016 and 2017, he reached high A ball. He was released by the Yankees after he batted .154 in 2017.

In January of 2018, Aune returned to football and walked on at Arkansas with the hope of resuming his career as a quarterback.

He participated in spring practice, but left when it became apparent he was not going to play much.

Aune then walked on at North Texas. After sitting out the entire 2018 season, he came off the bench and played in two games, backing up starter Mason Fine in 2019.

He started three games in 2020 and three for 300 yards three times in the abbreviated season. He threw for 302 yards and five touchdowns against UTEP.

Aune’s path is not exactly common, but it’s been done before.

Chris Weinke spent six seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays system before he left baseball and rejoined Florida State in 1997. He became the Seminoles starting quarterback at 26, eventually won the Heisman Trophy and played seven NFL seasons.

National Signing Day routinely offers a slew of “Can’t Miss,” “What If,” “Whatever Happened To” narratives and stories.

In the end, this all worked out. TCU thrived with Boykin. Mahomes thrived at Tech. Aune pursued his baseball career before opting out.

Patrick Mahomes is the latest “What If” for TCU, and several other schools, that would not recruit him because they thought he was going to play baseball.

Gary Patterson was out on Mahomes not because he didn’t like the player, but he just didn’t want to get “Auned.”