Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1531683
1 0 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M J ames Franklin has said that when it comes to the transfer portal, Penn State likes to pur- sue players with whom it has pre-existing relation- ships. If the Nittany Lions tried unsuccessfully to sign a prospect coming out of high school, those ties might come in handy when that player finds himself in the portal a few years later. PSU took that approach to a whole new level this year, at least with respect to its recent signing of safety King Mack. A 5-foot-10, 206-pound rising junior, Mack didn't just consider Penn State coming out of St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He signed with the Lions and spent his freshman season in State Col- lege, making 3 tackles in 13 games before heading to Alabama last winter. Mack did not make the Crimson Tide's defensive two-deep in 2024, though he was their highest-rated special teams player. He finished the season with 147 special teams snaps and totaled 14 tack- les in 13 game appearances. Mack had been a four-star recruit in 2023. He was the nation's No. 93 overall prospect and No. 8 safety, per the On3 Industry Ranking. In this year's On3 Transfer Portal Industry Ranking, he was listed as the No. 224 player nationally and No. 19 safety. In a Jan. 12 tweet announcing his re- turn to State College, Mack said simply, "I'm back home." Mack was one of six players who signed with Penn State during the win- ter transfer window. In addition to bol- stering their secondary, the Lions landed senior wide receivers Kyron Hudson and Devonte Ross of USC and Troy, respec- tively. They strengthened their gradua- tion-depleted defensive line by bringing in redshirt junior edge rusher Enai White from Texas A&M and redshirt freshman defensive tackle Owen Wafle from Mich- igan. And they added a talented young interior offensive lineman in redshirt sophomore T.J. Shanahan, formerly of Texas A&M. Hudson caught 38 passes for 462 yards and 3 scores for the Trojans last season. His biggest output came in the season-opener against LSU, in which he hauled in 5 passes for 83 yards and produced the biggest highlight of his career with a terrific one-handed catch between a pair of defenders that went for a 24-yard gain. Hudson finished his USC career with 70 receptions for 803 yards and 8 touchdowns. He was listed as the No. 45 wide receiver in the On3 Trans- fer Portal Industry Rank- ing. H u d s o n ' s f a t h e r , Chance, told BWI that Penn State checked all the receiver's boxes when he was looking at potential destinations. "It was important to us to find an opportunity for him to get more recep- tions and hopefully raise his draft stock," Chance Hudson said. "We made a checklist of everything that was important to us, but the main three were, one, where could he po- tentially earn more tar- gets? We want him to be in the best position possible to show what he can do. "The other two things were coaching stability and finding a quarterback that we believe has NFL potential. There were other things as well, but … targets, sta- bility and a good quarterback were basi- cally 1A, 1B and 1C." The Nittany Lions' other wide receiver signee, Ross, caught 76 passes for 1,043 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2024 while playing for former PSU wide receivers coach Gerad Parker, who is Troy's head coach. Coming out of Cartersville (Ga.) High, Ross initially committed to Marshall but later backed away from that pledge and was set to land at Kentucky out of high school. However, he never arrived in Lexington and ended up at Troy in 2022. In three years with the team, he caught 129 passes for 1,618 yards and 14 touch- NITTANY LIONS ADD SIX IN TRANSFER PORTAL G R E G P I C K E L | G R E G . P I C K E L @ O N 3 . C O M NEWS & NOTES Safety King Mack played for the Nittany Lions in 2023 before transferring to Alabama. He returned to Penn State in January. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL