Gladewater’s Daylon Mack Enjoying Recruiting Attention

The recruiting process wears thin on a lot of high school athletes, especially when that process starts as early as a player's sophomore year.

But Gladewater's Daylon Mack, who is already one of the nation's top football recruits in the 2015 class, is taking it all in stride.

The 6-foot-2, 297-pound defensive tackle is one of only two East Texans in the sophomore class with at least one Division I FBS offer, joining Sulphur Springs safety Larry Pryor, who has an offer from Texas. Mack holds six offers: Oklahoma, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech.

"I really like (the recruiting attention)," Mack said. "I'm really enjoying it, getting all this attention and having two years before I really have to make a decision. I'm just enjoying it. It really hasn't been bugging me like a lot of people think."

Mack visited Texas this past weekend, which is when Pryor got his offer from the Longhorns. Gladewater's defensive anchor came away from the visit impressed.

"It was great," Mack said. "They really rolled out the red carpet and showed me a good time around the campus and let me talk to the players and hang out with the defensive linemen."

Mack told ETSN.fm in January that Texas A&M was his early leader, but after visiting Austin, he puts the Aggies and Longhorns on equal footing.

The caveat is, of course, that he has plenty of time to consider everyone, which he emphasized.

"Those two schools are my top schools because they're the only schools I've visited," Mack said. "I like having, like I said, two years so I can sit back and look at how they do things over the next couple of years because a lot can change."

Mack earned ETSN.fm Football Super Team Defensive Newcomer of the Year honors following his stellar sophomore season, which included 62 tackles, 16 for loss, six sacks, and six fumble recoveries.

He hopes to have an even bigger junior season, when the Bears turn to some of the players who helped their sub-varsity squads accumulate a 33-0-1 cumulative record in 2012. Mack believes those players should help the Bears, who went 3-7 last season, get to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

"We expect to be a good team. We understand that we haven't been that good in the past, but this year I feel like we're gonna make the playoffs no doubt. I feel like we're gonna be able to go two or three rounds deep," Mack said. "We have better players at almost every position than we did last year. The young players, that's really all they know how to do is win. I feel like that will be big."