Texan Mitchell has gotten comfortable in his new home away from home
By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
Not sure if one can feel more comfortable – at least on the football field – than Bo Levi Mitchell did last Saturday when he had a career day for the Eastern Washington University Eagles.
Mitchell, EWU's Texas transfer at quarterback, went 23-of-36 for 337 yards and four touchdowns in Eastern's crucial 35-24 Big Sky Conference win over the Wildcats on a hot afternoon in Ogden, Utah. He told broadcasters Larry Weir and Paul Sorenson during last Monday night's coaches show on 700AM ESPN, “I felt like I could sit back there and eat a sandwich and throw the ball.”
Sure enough Mitchell went through the day without so much as a hand put on him.
“Hands down to the O-line, they protected me all day,” Mitchell said. “That has a lot to do with how the offense operates.” And it operated very well, racking up 465 total yards, including 128 on the ground from the Taiwan Jones-less running game.
Jones missed his first full game since suffering a pelvic contusion a week prior at Bozeman in Montana State's 30-7 rout of the Eagles. But Darriell Beaumonte did his best imitation, rushing for 78 yards and catching one of Mitchell's TD tosses.
The Weber win earned this year's Eagles' team a measure of revenge for last year's Wildcat victory in Cheney. Eastern's 31-14 loss last year put them in a tight box where they had to win out in order to earn a playoff berth, which they did.
In another sense the Eastern victory was also vital, even this early in the Big Sky race where a second loss could be a devastating blow to post-season hopes.
Mitchell has made a seemingly seamless transition from his breakout season in 2008 at Southern Methodist University and big city Dallas to Eastern and little old Cheney.
As a true freshman at SMU Mitchell threw for some 5,000 yards. He started the Mustangs' game last year in Pullman against Washington State. But four interceptions later and an overtime loss to the Cougars found Mitchell riding the pine the remainder of the year.
And what followed was him looking for a place to have his college career reborn.
He landed at Eastern at just the right time to be one of a half-dozen hopefuls who sought to replace record-setting Eagles' quarterback Matt Nichols. But Mitchell never, ever, thought just because he'd played at the Bowl Championship Series level he'd be the heir apparent for the job.
His acceptance might have been a perfect recipe of equal parts talent and humility. It also has a lot to do with coming in and never thinking, “Hey I'm the guy, I'm the transfer guy,” Mitchell said.
“I came in with five quarterbacks who are all competitive, everyone of them are good,” Mitchell explained. “No doubt everyone of them can come into the game and play just as good.”
Mitchell said “not coming in cocky and doing whatever it takes to be accepted,” earned him the respect of his teammates.
He also blew the secret of all that hands-off protection last week in Ogden. “I did buy the O-line breakfast one time. You always have to. They're your guys, you have to help them out.”
Food alone does not earn the protection Mitchell got on the grass at Stewart Stadium in the shadows of the Wasatch Mountains. “It's a big – in fact huge trust factor,” Mitchell said of his offensive line. “I definitely trust everybody on the field. Being with those guys and how they accepted me, there's a huge trust factor in that,” the native of the Houston suburb of Katy, Texas said.
“When I literally get touched just one time in the game it's hard not to feel comfortable. And seeing their quarterback (Cameron Higgins) go to the ground (9 times), I'm glad I'm not that guy.”
The comfort Mitchell has experienced goes well beyond the pocket of protection his offensive line – composed at various times of Gabriel Jackson, Caleb Worthington, Steven Forgette, Chris Powers, Nikolai Myers, Will Post and Brandon Murphy – brings. His real home is some 36 hours and 2,100 road miles away but Mitchell brought something familiar with him when he enrolled in school last winter: brothers Cory and Pat.
Cory Mitchell, a 2006 graduate of Katy High is a true freshman and listed as a wide receiver for the Eagles. He's playing football for the first time in years.
“Pat's kind of like a dad; he takes care of all of us,” Mitchell said. “Cory's been a leader to me my entire life and was always the guy that was (saying) ‘stay away from parties, stay away from everything, just focus on football and you can go somewhere.”
Mitchell says that positive influence is a big part of why he is where he is today. Maybe the fact that his brothers learned their life lessons the hard way also help. Both Mitchell's brotheers were kicked off their high school team for alcohol offenses he said.
“Just having those two guys here to talk me through things and help me through things, be that support group, you know it's amazing.”
Comfort comes in all shapes and sizes it seems.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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