2016 WR has two offers
Class of 2016 wide receiver Austin Mack will not make his first varsity start for Fort Wayne (Ind.) Bishop Luers until later this month, but the rising sophomore already holds two BCS offers.
Both of Mack's scholarship offers came over the summer. The first arrived early in the summer from the Indiana Hoosiers.
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"It was in June and we did our own individual camp with [Fort Wayne] Dwenger in Bloomington," Mack said. "I just performed really well and they loved me.
"The most I probably talked to was Coach Carter [Whitson], one of the assistant wide receivers coaches. He loved me from the start. The other receivers coach, [Kevin] Johns, said he would love to offer me but I'd have to talk to Coach Kevin Wilson. Eventually I talked to him and he offered."
The excitement of garnering his first scholarship offer was accentuated by it coming from an in-state Big Ten program.
"I thought that was wonderful," Mack said. "As a basketball fan, they are my team. I also have many schoolmates who go there, and it is only three hours away so that is another thing that really made me love that place."
The offer from Indiana was followed in June by an offer from the Cincinnati Bearcats after he attended one of their camps.
"With Cincinnati, I first got seen by their DB coach at Sound Mind Sound Body in Michigan," Mack said. "I performed really well, but the receivers coach wasn't there so I was asked to come down to a camp.
"That was July 17 and I went down there and stayed a couple days before with my wide receiver coach's uncle. He showed me around the city and it is a wonderful city. The campus was right downtown and that is pretty cool. At the camp they put me with the senior group and it was a fun opportunity."
Mack also attended camps at Michigan State, Toledo and Ball State this summer. He is looking at getting back out to several of those schools for games in the fall.
"I'm thinking of going to the Missouri-Indiana game (Sept. 21)," he said. "I am thinking about a Michigan State game and I definitely have to go to a Notre Dame game."
Notre Dame is another in-state program for Mack, and the Irish hold particular interest for the young receiver prospect.
"With the academics and the tradition and the atmosphere, it is a beautiful place," Mack said.
Mack's former teammate at Bishop Luers, class of 2013 five-star linebacker Jaylon Smith, will be a freshman for the Irish this fall. Mack feels he could step in and provide some of that leadership that will be missing this fall with Smith in South Bend.
"The thing about Jaylon is he wasn't that vocal, but he was such a role model, did everything right and everybody looked up to him," Mack said.
Like Smith, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Mack expects to play both sides of the football for the four-time defending state champs this fall. Besides his role at wide receiver on offense, Mack also expects to line up at safety on defense.