UNIVERSITY PARK– King Mack knows he made a mistake
Penn State coach James Franklin knows King Mack made a mistake.
But one of the beauties of modern college football is that, through the transfer portal, mistakes can be corrected.
Mack came to Penn State as one of the top recruits in the program’s 2023 class. Although he didn’t play a ton as a freshman, Mack appeared in all 13 games, playing mostly on special teams. From the end of his true freshman season through spring camp in 2024, there was no indication that Mack wouldn’t be at Penn State for his sophomore season.
Then, all of a sudden, he was gone.
Mack decided to transfer to Alabama, and that decision made Penn State fans and media scratch their heads at the time, and it looked even worse in hindsight.
As it turned out, Penn State lost a star player at Mack’s position when KJ Winston suffered a season-ending injury during Week 2.
Had Mack stayed, who knows what impact he might have made on last year’s team that ended up falling one drive short of a national championship game appearance?
But now, No. 2 Penn State again has a team good enough to win it all, and this time, Mack is a part of it.
“Honestly, I missed it so much,” Mack told reporters via Zoom Tuesday. “Being back in Beaver, you know, the energy of the fans, just that Beaver Stadium pulse, is different. So I’m definitely blessed to be back. Thank God for allowing Coach Franklin to be in open arms and allow me to come back and actually make an impact.”
THE RETURN
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
For Mack, the word “return” had a double meaning Saturday, Aug. 30.
It was a “return” in the sense that Mack was playing his first game for Penn State since the 2023 Peach Bowl.
The first big play Mack made at Penn State was a kickoff return.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.With this statement, Mack showed he’s more than a safety, and it was also Mack’s official “welcome back” moment.
“Honestly, the first thing that came to mind it was like ‘I’m back in Beaver, man. You know, hearing the crowd going crazy, even seeing my teammates excited for me, coach Franklin telling me ‘This is why I came back home,’ it was just an unrealstic feeling, I can’t lie to you.”
Franklin’s words to Mack were captured on video, and the coach spoke candidly about Mack after the game.
“I’ll say he made a mistake,” Mack said, “left, figured it out quick, came back, and the first game back, he has a huge play for us. So, that was cool.”
WHAT KING LEARNED
Penn State defensive backs Zion Tracy, King Mack, and Elliot Washington II sing the Penn State Alma Mater.
So what did King Mack learn from all of this?
Well, not everything about his leaving was negative.
For one, Mack got to play in the SEC and thus got to see different offenses.
Mack said he’d never played against a tempo offense before the Alabama-Tennessee game last season, in which he played 38 of his 106 snaps.
But Mack didn’t feel the same connection with his Alabama teammates as he does with his friends at Penn State.
“I miss the guys that I came in with my freshman year. We created the bond, the brotherhood of just that 2027 (graduating) class, we’re so tight,” he said. “Like, we’re all.. we’ve all been through the blood, sweat and tears together. So leaving those guys and going somewhere else and starting over, it was hard, because I didn’t have the same bond I did with the guys at Alabama that I did with my guys here.”
Leaving Penn State also taught Mack something about life.
“The lesson I learned, honestly, was to not try and speed up your process. A lot of people, they get caught up in being a freshman, a top recruit, and instantly making an impact in college. And I realized my coaches are going to put me in the best situation that they feel for you. I didn’t see that fully as a freshman, but once I got to Alabama, I realized that Coach (Anthony Poindexter) and the rest of the coaches honestly did put me in the best situation. And me leaving that also showed me that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”
