Mulrooney looks back on two visits

NC State became the second school to extend an offer to Evan Mulrooney on Wednesday night, and the Delaware lineman just returned home from two visits.

The 6-foot-4, 282-pound offensive tackle from Wilmington (N.C.) Salesianum School had already received an offer from Maryland, but the NC State offer had him excited as well.

Mulrooney was at Cincinnati on Wednesday when he received news of the Wolfpack's offer.

What did he think of what the Bearcats had to offer?

"It went really well minus the eight and a half hour drive," Mulrooney said. "It was pretty nice. I got a tour of the facilities. They didn't practice because it was raining but from what I saw I really liked it. I got to sit in offensive line meetings and I got to see what coach (Don) Mahoney is like. He's a really great guy and a good coach. It really seems like he cares about his linemen as people and not just as players. That's pretty important to me.

"The players were really nice. A couple of offensive linemen came up and introduced themselves. I'd like to find a real friendly environment so that was good.

"The facilities were amazing. They said they have the largest weight room in the country and that thing was state of the art."

Just a couple of days before that Mulrooney was at Penn State. He grew up following the Nittany Lions so it was a special opportunity.

"I went to Penn State on Monday," he recalled. "That one was really cool, too. I always grew up a Penn State fan so it was good to go up there and see what it was like. It was really awesome.

"I got to meet Joe Pa, which was crazy. The guy is a legend and you get star struck talking to him. I was like, 'Oh my God, it's Joe Paterno. There were a couple of other Delaware guys up there. I got to sit in the offensive guards and offensive centers meeting room and that was really awesome. Coach Anderson is a really great coach. He's been around the game a while and he's been a head coach at a couple of places.

"Coach Vanderlinden showed me around campus. It's a big city feel but a small town. It's just a really cool campus. You would expect it to be really huge but it's not. Everything's close together."

Mulrooney said he would try to visit NC State sometime soon.