Sam Adams was not surprised to see Mason Mims beat out a more experienced competitor to become starting quarterback at East Tennessee State.
After all, Mims had done it before, for Adams’ Oxford High School team in Alabama.
Arriving to that program prior to his sophomore season, Oxford had a returning starter and offensive player of the year in the region who led the Yellow Jackets to the regional title.
That summer, Mims still won the starting job
“Just the way that he processes information and the accuracy that he throws the ball with are unlike anybody else that I’ve ever coached, and I’ve coached some really good ones,” Adams said in a telephone interview with I-81 Sports this week, “in the college game for a few years and in the high school game for a long time. Anything he accomplishes isn’t going to be a surprise to me at all. I know how he prepares, I know the skill set that he has and how his brain works.”
Oxford moved Sam Robertson, the QB Mims supplanted, to receiver. In Week 1 of the 2022 season, Robertson hauled in seven catches for 123 yards and three touchdowns. That put him up for some weekly accolades, and on social media, there was Mims, touting his teammate.
“Those kinds of things, to see what he was like as a teammate, that opened my eyes the most,” Adams said.
“We made the right decision”
Mims is just three games into the season at ETSU. That’s the one-quarter mark, and a relative blip in an entire college career. When he took to the field for the Bucs’ season opener against Campbell on Aug. 29, it was the first time he had thrown a pass in a live game in nearly two calendar years. All he did was go out and set the program single-game record for completions, making 33 of 41 throws for 373 yards and two scores in a 49-37 loss. Mims currently ranks among the top 10 FCS quarterbacks in completion percentage (5th, 74.2) and passing yards (9th, 793).
Still making throws, and lifting up teammates like he did with that tweet more than four years ago. When asked at Monday’s press conference about the offense and what it learned in last Saturday’s game at North Carolina, Mims spent more time talking up the other Bucs and emphasizing his own need to improve.
“I thought we ran the ball really well,” Mims said when discussing the 35-3 loss to the Tar Heels. “I thought the backs and the guys up front did a great job. I think I need to eliminate putting the ball in jeopardy, obviously. If all 11 guys can do their job I think we’re gonna be really good offensively.
“We went back and watched the tape yesterday. There was a bunch of plays where I didn’t do my job. But we’re very close to being a really good offense.”
Before that, after ETSU’s 48-14 win against Tusculum on Sept. 5 during which Bucs receivers dropped a few passes, Mims faulted himself for the drops rather than his wideouts.
“We made the right decision as who our starting quarterback is,” ETSU coach Will Healy said at his weekly press conference on Monday. “And we also, I think, made it at the right time, with just getting him those reps those last two and a half weeks or so of camp and being the guy where there is no question. I thought it’s been really invaluable to him.
“It didn’t matter to him,” Healy added. “He’s got a persona and a consistency about how he handles himself that he didn’t need to be validated. He was going to work his rear end off. But still it was good for us.”
Mims had an interception early on Saturday against North Carolina – “I can’t force the ball in like that. I’m gonna learn from it,” he said – but settled and finished the game completing 23 of 31 throws for 178 yards.
“I thought he was great Saturday. He’s been great for the first three games,” Healy said.
An elite processor
Now 6-3 and 211 pounds, Mims is one of those guys who just looks like a quarterback. But according to the coach who oversaw his development in high school, it’s what’s between the ears that really sets apart Mims from other QBs.
“He is an elite processor of information. The decisions that he can make on a play-in, play-out basis in run and pass… he rarely misses one,” Adams said. “Every quarterback is going to miss one every now and then. When he does happen to miss one, it’s not an issue that’s going to come up.
“He wants to know as much information from the coaches as he possibly can. He wants the answers, where the ball is supposed to go in every scenario. A lot of guys act like they want all that information but they don’t know what to do with it. Mason can take all that in, internalize it, and make a series of decisions in a matter of seconds.”
Mims wrapped his prep career holding a slew of records. His 8,405 career passing yards set the program mark. He also holds the school and Alabama Class 6A records for single-game (487 yards) and single-season passing yards (3,617 in 2024) and career completion percentage (70.7).
“Our playbook, which is really not different from the one he’s running in college right now, he learned it super quickly,” Adams said. “The biggest jumps from his sophomore to his senior year were in the physical end. You just saw him year by year just add more horsepower to his game. He built his body, his arm strength, his release got quicker. That’s probably what he put the most into, the physical progression you’ve seen out of him.”
Coming out of his shell
Another trait that has followed Mims throughout his career? He’s never been much of a talker. Healy did not let Mims speak to the media at ETSU until after the opening game, and talk of Mims becoming more outgoing has been an ongoing storyline throughout this season.
“Mason doesn’t really talk outside of football,” Bucs receiver Suderian Harrison said during last week’s press conference, adding, “Getting closer with him has been one of the main goals. Making him more comfortable and believing in the whole receiver room. I mean that’s pretty much the biggest thing with him is just getting him to come out of his comfort shell and getting him to lead us in the right direction and just letting him know that no matter what happens, we’ve got his back.”
Prior to the opening game, tight end Charlie Browder talked about Mims singing during a team karaoke event and pulling off his shirt while reciting “PEEP”, a team mantra introduced by Healy that stands for passion, energy, enthusiasm, and positivity.
“If you don’t say it with passion, energy, enthusiasm, and positivity, you have to do it again,” Browder said in the Aug. 24 press conference. “When Mason went up there, he did it. It was good, but it wasn’t great. We managed to stand up on a chair and did it again. It wasn’t good enough, so I made him take his shirt off. It was great.”
Mims being a quiet person – Adams describes it as “cerebral” – isn’t new.
“He’s a really shy kid,” Adams said. “The more you’re around him and the more comfortable he is, the more open he feels talking to anybody. A lot of guys want their quarterback to be a little bit more of a rah-rah guy. If you’re taking the good parts about that quality of his, he’s the same exact person whether he throws a touchdown pass or an interception on a drive. To me, that’s the big positive of it. He’s never going to get overly emotional regardless of how the game is going.
“We would have liked for him to be a little more vocal here. That never really came about, as far as a guy to rally the troops in the locker room or halftime or any of that. The good part of those qualities far outweighed the bad.
“Outside of just the occasional fist pump, we never saw any huge celebrations out of him,” Adams added. “We never saw any big disappointment if something didn’t go his way. I think the other guys on the team looked at him as the steady captain of the ship.”
Coming down from facing North Carolina, led by six-time Super Bowl winning NFL head coach Bill Belichick, will test just how steady Mims can be. After all, Mims grew up a Patriots fan.
“It was definitely surreal,” Mims said. “It was just very cool to be out there and compete against one of the greatest coaches to ever do it.”