Penn State's persistence pays off with four-star King Mack, other southern recruits
The time and effort that Penn State put into recruiting Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas paid off on Wednesday, with the Nittany Lions inking four-star safety King Mack out of the South Florida powerhouse. Penn State earned a commitment from Mack back in the summer, but as is the case with many southern recruitments, the Nittany Lions couldn’t let their guard down all the way to National Signing Day.
“In terms of the battle to the end, I think the King Mack one was a battle to the end. He was pretty firm to us, but I think there was a lot of things around him that were pulling in other directions,” Penn State Director of Player Personnel Andy Frank said on Wednesday. “But who he was was a Penn State kid and someone who felt at home here and wanted to be here. Coach [James Franklin] said it to him today in the Facetime in our building, he’s a guy that you could see as a future captain. Whether he will be or not is to be determined, but he has that feel.
“Those are the battles that you really invest in as a coach. When he’s your guy and you’re Ja’Juan Seider or Anthony Poindexter, they invested a lot in getting that kid here. That feels good in the end for those guys.”
Penn State signed four southern recruits in the class
Mack was the highest-rated among Penn State’s southern signees in the Class of 2023. The Nittany Lions were unable to secure his St. Thomas Aquinas teammate Conrad Hussey, who signed with Florida State on Thursday, but still sign four out of five commits from SEC country on Wednesday. Pulling quality recruits out of those areas oftentimes takes a greater effort, but the staff sees the time invested as a worthy endeavor.
“We made a point to basically cast a wide net around everyone that was involved with those kids,” Recruiting Coordinator for Personnel & Recruitment Kenny Sanders said on Wednesday. “Those kids are so special and they have such special families that we probably maybe were a little bit more worried than we needed to be, but you never feel comfortable until the inks on the paper with a kid, especially out of region with their level of talent.
“We think they are program changers for us and for us to be able to get those kids in this class, I think it changes the face of our program in a lot of ways. We’re going to have influence in areas that are different than what we’ve had in the past. I think those guys are going to be really good players for us.”
Southern recruiting a challenge for the Nittany Lions
Due to geographical and travel logistics, Penn State’s recruiting approach will never lean on its southern recruiting prowess to fill out the bulk of its class, but the Nittany Lions believe that pulling select players from those states is key to competing for championships. Penn State offered more players in Florida in the cycle than it offered in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington D.C. combined. After Florida, the most offered states on Penn State’s list were Texas, Alabama and Georgia.
“At the end of the day, for us to get to where we need to go we need to take a national approach to looking at everybody and figuring out who fits,” said Frank. “I think when the kids get here that we ended up signing from further away, people are going to realize just how they fit. A DaKaari Nelson, a King Mack, Elliot Washington… Those type of kids. They’re going to get here and it’s so obvious to those that are around them why they are here. You’ve got to try to find that when you’re looking at kids that are far away.”
