Bo Levi Mitchell
Bo Levi Mitchell is an American professional football quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. He played college football at SMU and Eastern Washington, leading Eastern Washington to an FCS national championship victory in 2010. He also won the Walter Payton Award in 2011 as the best offensive player in the FCS.
After going undrafted in the 2012 NFL draft, Mitchell signed with the CFL's Calgary Stampeders in 2012. He became Calgary's starting quarterback for the 2014 season, setting a number of club and league records including best record for a first-time starting quarterback in league history. He won the 102nd Grey Cup in 2014, the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award in 2016 and 2018, and the 106th Grey Cup in 2018. With his second Grey Cup win as starter, he became the first quarterback to start and win multiple Grey Cup games with the Stampeders organization. Mitchell was named the first-team quarterback on the CFL's 2010–2019 All-Decade Team.
After two injury-plagued seasons, the 2020 CFL season being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a benching, Mitchell signed with the Tiger-Cats as a free agent in 2023. He led the CFL in passing yards for the first time in 2024 and repeated the feat in 2025. Mitchell is seventh all-time in CFL history in starting quarterback wins, and the fastest quarterback to reach 100 wins. He is also eighth all-time in career passing yards.
Early life
Mitchell was born on March 3, 1990, in Katy, Texas. He played high school football at Katy High School, and took over as the starting quarterback after Andy Dalton graduated. As a senior in 2007, Mitchell passed for 2,451 yards and 37 touchdowns with only four interceptions. He led Katy to a 16–0 undefeated season and a state championship. He was named to the Houston Chronicle's Houston Top 110. Mitchell graduated from Katy High in 2008. He chose to attend Southern Methodist University over an offer from Hawaii. Mitchell was also recruited by Eastern Washington.College career
SMU (2008–2009)
Mitchell played two seasons of college football for the SMU Mustangs from 2008 to 2009. As a true freshman in 2008, he threw for 2,865 yards and 24 touchdowns. However, SMU finished the 2008 season with a 1–11 record while Mitchell's 23 interceptions were the most in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.Mitchell started the first seven games of the 2009 season before suffering a shoulder injury and being replaced by freshman Kyle Padron. Mitchell recovered from his injury but Padron remained the starter. Overall in 2009, Mitchell completed 56 percent of his passes for 1,725 yards and 12 touchdowns with 10 interceptions for a passer rating of 117.9. SMU was 3–4 in Mitchell's seven starts before winning five of its last six to finish 8–5. Mitchell started all 19 of the games he played at SMU, finishing with totals of 385 completions on 676 pass attempts for 4,590 yards, 36 touchdowns, and 33 interceptions. His passer rating was 121.8.
Eastern Washington (2010–2011)
As a junior in 2010, Mitchell transferred to Eastern Washington University, which had previously recruited Mitchell out of high school. He helped lead the Eagles to victory in the FCS Championship Game, a 20–19 come-from-behind victory over the University of Delaware, the school's first national championship in football. He was named the game's Most Outstanding Player after throwing three touchdown passes in the final 16 minutes of the game and had 302 total passing yards in the game as well. Mitchell earned honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference and Big Sky All-Academic honors for the 2010 season.In the 2011 season, Mitchell led the FCS in four statistical categories, including passing yards and touchdown passes on his way to breaking four school records. He broke EWU's record for single season passing yards with 4,009, which ranks 17th in FCS history and fifth in Big Sky Conference history. Mitchell won the Walter Payton Award as the best offensive player in the FCS. He was also named the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Big Sky. Mitchell was named to seven All-America teams this season, earning first team honors on six of them. He was the top quarterback on teams selected by The Sports Network, American Football Coaches Association, Walter Camp, Associated Press, Phil Steele Publications and Beyond Sports College Network. He majored in interdisciplinary liberal arts at Eastern Washington.
Statistics
Professional career
Pre-draft
After his senior year, Mitchell was invited to play in the inaugural NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. He was rated the 39th best quarterback in the 2012 NFL draft by NFLDraftScout.com. He went undrafted. Mitchell was thought to be too small to play in the NFL. He was also noted for wearing a glove on his throwing hand. The Houston Texans was the only NFL team that offered Mitchell a workout.Calgary Stampeders (2012–2022)
2012: Backup season and first Grey Cup appearance
On April 30, 2012, the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League signed Mitchell to a free agent contract. Mitchell saw limited playing time in the 2012 CFL season, playing as a third-string backup behind Drew Tate and Kevin Glenn and ahead of Brad Sinopoli.He ran quarterback sneaks in the short-yardage offense, and scored his first CFL rushing touchdown in week 3 against the Montreal Alouettes. Mitchell was also the holder on field goal and convert attempts. It was in this role that he registered his first CFL touchdown pass. In Calgary's eleventh game of the season against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Calgary was lining up for a field goal attempt, but faked it when Mitchell flipped the ball to Rob Cote who ran up the middle of the field for a 26-yard touchdown.
In the final game of the regular season against the Edmonton Eskimos, Mitchell took over for the final drive and moved the offense downfield, allowing Rene Paredes the opportunity to kick the game-winning field goal as Calgary won 30–27. In the West Semi-Final against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Mitchell scored two one-yard rushing touchdows as the Stampeders won 36–30. In the third quarter of the West Final vs BC, Mitchell faked a quarterback sneak on a third down gamble and threw a long pass to Maurice Price to set Calgary up at the Lions' one-yard line. On first and goal, Mitchell tried to run into the end zone but had two of his ribs broken by Solomon Elimimian. On third and goal, Mitchell stretched his hands out into the end zone and scored a rushing touchdown. The Stampeders later won the game 34–29. In the 100th Grey Cup, with the contest out of reach, Mitchell entered the game and engineered a touchdown drive and a 2-point convert, both caught by Price.
2013: Part-time starter
He began the 2013 CFL season as the third-string quarterback again, and continued being the holder on field goal and convert attempts, and running quarterback sneaks in the short-yardage offense. On July 20, 2013, Mitchell came on in the third-quarter after Kevin Glenn left with an injury and completed seven of 13 passes for 49 yards and two touchdowns to help the Stampeders overcome a 24-point deficit to defeat the Alouettes 38–27.In his first CFL start, on July 26, 2013, in relief of the injured Tate and Glenn, Mitchell completed 29 of 33 passes for 376 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions in a 37–24 win over the Blue Bombers. The Calgary Herald called it a "debut for the ages". Mitchell won the Gibson's Finest Offensive Player of the Week for this performance. He started two more games for the Stampeders in 2013 and dressed in all 18 games, finishing the season completing 69.6% of his passes for 1,156 yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions: a quarterback rating of 111.2. Mitchell was protected by the Stampeders in the 2013 CFL expansion draft. The expansion Ottawa Redblacks selected Stampeders quarterback Kevin Glenn in the first round of the draft.
2014: First Grey Cup win and CFL MOP
On January 14, 2014, Mitchell signed a contract extension with the Stampeders, which was set to keep him in Calgary through 2016. On June 23, head coach John Hufnagel named Mitchell the starting quarterback and Drew Tate the backup for Calgary's Week 1 game against the Montreal Alouettes. On opening day, Mitchell gave the Stampeders their first win of the season 29–8 after throwing for 313 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. On Thursday, July 24, Mitchell tied Jeff Garcia's CFL record for consecutive career winning starts, going 7–0, with a 26–22 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos. On September 1, the Stampeders beat the Eskimos again to improve to 9–1, with Mitchell becoming the first CFL quarterback to begin his career with a 12–1 starting record. He passed Jackie Parker and Jim Van Pelt, who both started 11–2. On September 13 against the Toronto Argonauts, Mitchell suffered a sprained ankle and a stretched knee ligament. Mitchell went 12–2 overall as Calgary's starting quarterback in 2014, which helped the team finish in first place in the CFL West Division with a 15–3 record and earn a first round playoff bye. On November 23, 2014, in his first playoff start, Mitchell led the Stampeders to a victory in the Western Final over division rival Edmonton, earning them a berth in the 102nd Grey Cup. Mitchell and the Stampeders went on to defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 20–16 in the Grey Cup. Mitchell was named Grey Cup MVP after completing 25 of 34 passes for 334 yards and one interception. He also completed ten straight passes, which was the third most in Grey Cup history.2015
On March 3, 2015, his 25th birthday, Mitchell signed an extension with the Stampeders to keep him in Calgary through the 2018 season.In 2015, Mitchell's second full season as the Stampeders starting quarterback, he posted career highs in many passing categories, including completions, attempts, yards, and touchdowns. He went 13–4 as the team's starting quarterback, resting for the final regular season game because Calgary's position in the standings would remain unchanged; Calgary finished second place in the West Division behind the Edmonton Eskimos, who beat them via a tiebreaker. For his efforts, he was named a CFL West All-Star and the winner of the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy, awarded to the CFL West Division's most outstanding player. After knocking off the BC Lions in the West Semi-Final, the Stampeders were eliminated by the Eskimos who went on to win the 103rd Grey Cup.