How Patrick Mahomes Offered Advice to Iowa Recruit

2021 commit Arland Bruce IV listened to what the Chiefs QB had to say.

When Iowa football commit Arland Bruce IV saw a text in his phone from Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, he was shocked.

“I had woken up from a nap and I was like, ‘There is no way. This has to be a burner account or something,’” he said.

But it wasn’t.

Bruce and Mahomes connected through Purple Label Barber, a barbershop in Overland Park, Kansas.

Bruce and his barber, DeJuan Bonds, are like family; Bruce considers him like an older brother.

But Bonds also cuts hair for the Chiefs. And there was one day when both Bruce and Mahomes were in Purple Label Barber at the same time.

“He’s like, ‘Yo Pat, I want you to meet my little bro,’” Bruce said. “He showed Pat my film. Pat really liked it and was really nice about it. We took a picture and everything and I posted it.”

For a brief moment in time, Bruce thought of playing quarterback in college. While he’s slated to fill a slot-receiver role with the Hawkeyes, he was (and still is) excellent as a 'wildcat' quarterback.

Olathe North head coach Chris McCartney moved Bruce over to quarterback just a few games into his freshman season. Then, as a sophomore, he tallied 1,209 passing yards and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 1,379 and 19 scores on the ground.

But when Bruce wanted to get serious about honing in on his quarterback skills, Mahomes hooked him up with his personal throwing coaches, Jeff and Jake Christensen — Jake is a former quarterback at Iowa.

Mahomes eventually gave Bruce his phone number, and the communication continued. Bruce wanted to get his advice, considering Mahomes was in a similar position to himself coming out of high school. The future Super Bowl MVP was originally a three-star prospect coming out of Whitehouse high school in Texas before committing to Texas Tech.

“He told me to keep working hard, and that based on my film, the offers would come,” Bruce said. “He was right.”

Bruce, who was originally worried about not landing a Division I football scholarship offer, received offers from Iowa, Iowa State and Tulsa.

“In one of (Mahomes’) texts, he said, ‘Congrats on the offer from Iowa. Glad people are finally starting to realize,’” Bruce said.

Bruce committed to Iowa on April 28, giving the Hawkeyes a dynamic threat on offense.

Since then, Bruce hasn’t spoken as much with Mahomes. Mahomes has a busy schedule, but Bruce has his number in case he’s got any questions.

“Sometimes I’ll see on my Twitter timeline that he’ll like my tweet. My commitment post, he liked it,” Bruce said with a laugh.