Former Penn State football All-American joins athletics fundraising staff

The Penn State athletics family has welcomed back one of its own with a former All-American football player joining its staff this week. Michael Mauti, the Nittany Lions’ legacy and 2012 Big Ten Linebacker of the Year, has been named Associate Director of Development for Intercollegiate Athletics.

Monday is his first day on the job.

In the new role, Mauti will help raise funds for athletics under the direction of Alyssa Francona, the senior associate athletics director for advancement and the head of the Nittany Lion Club. One of the largest organizations in the country, the Nittany Lion Club generates support from its more than 27,000 members.

And, Mauti, once the face of Penn State Athletics in the face of harrowing circumstances ahead of the 2012 season, will now help in those efforts. Serving as a natural extension to his support of the Nittany Lions’ name, image, and likeness unification, founding Lions Legacy Club and its eventual unification into Happy Valley United, Mauti has been vigilant in his prioritization of financial support for the Penn State football program.

“Football is what drives the athletic department, what drives, by extension, the university. It’s the lead dog,” Mauti said during a March 2023 interview with Blue White Illustrated. “We have to prioritize resources. Feed the football program and basketball, because it funds the rest of the sports. It’s not to have a culture of football. It’s a reprioritization of investment into the product that is Penn State football.”

Penn State career comes full circle

Enrolling at Penn State in January 2008, the son of former Nittany Lion Rich Mauti, Michael quickly established his presence in the program. Playing as a true freshman in every game during the 2008 season, he suffered a setback when he tore his ACL ahead of the 2009 campaign.

Bouncing back to play in 2010, Mauti emerged as one of the best defenders on the team. He made 67 tackles and 5.5 TFL during his redshirt sophomore campaign. Then, he followed it with a strong start in 2011 until another torn ACL derailed his progress. Again bouncing back from the setback, Mauti returned for spring practices to set up an important final year with the Nittany Lions on the field.

What transpired off it would come to define Mauti’s time in the program, though. Taking the lead in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and its fallout, particularly in light of the NCAA sanctions leveled in July 2012, Mauti was a driving force to keep the team together. Ultimately losing only a handful of players to transfers, Mauti helped keep the program afloat in the debut season for new head coach Bill O’Brien.

Ultimately forced out of action a third time due to a third torn ACL, Mauti was hailed by O’Brien for the enormous impact he’d made on the program.

“All I can say is, in your career, I’ve been fortunate to be around some special players. You’re thinking about some of the players that you’ve had the fortune to coach. I’ve coached the greatest. I’ve coached a Hall of Fame quarterback, Hall of Fame receivers, great players. And he’s one of the most special players I’ve been around,” O’Brien said. “He embodies, in my opinion, what Penn State’s all about. He’s tough, grind it out, smart. He’s just a fantastic kid.”

Building a legacy

Enduring another surgery, Mauti returned to play in the NFL during the 2013 season. A seventh-round draft selection by the Minnesota Vikings, he spent one and a half seasons in Minneapolis before he was picked up by the New Orleans Saints in 2015. There, he played off and on for three more seasons before hanging up his playing career.

Still tied tightly to Penn State football, though, Mauti has stressed the importance of the program on his life and the priority he understands in its effects on the whole of the university and its athletic department.

“A rising tide lifts all ships. If the football product elevates, then every other sport elevates by extension. You can’t argue that. It’s not that we’re prioritizing sports over academics. It’s no secret that football drives the ship of this entire ecosystem. So we have to focus there first,” said Mauti. “And for me, it’s to propel and enhance the legacy that is Penn State. I’m a product of that. And that’s got to evolve. It’s progress. We’re moving this program into the next era.”

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