Texas A&M defensive tackle Daylon Mack trying to find the reset button.
Former 5-star recruit credits coaches for ‘a mentality change’
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M defensive tackle Daylon Mack cannot escape his all-time highlight as a collegian, when a Nevada running back and quarterback could not escape his grasp.
“Often,” Mack said of how many times fans, friends and family remind him of the time he tackled two players at once. “I need to get back to doing it.”
The mindboggling, pad-popping play happened nearly three years ago at Kyle Field, when Mack burst through the line of scrimmage untouched and hammered the running back and quarterback a split second after the exchange.
Both players crumbled to the field, and Mack, a freshman at the time, appeared to account for all five of his recruiting stars at once as one of the nation’s top prospects of 2015. Over the next two seasons the tackles didn’t add up like Mack and his coaches hoped, however, and he’s down to a final season of trying to justify the hype.
Mack needs no reminder his college career so far hasn’t met expectations — he’s leading the charge to try and change that his senior season.
“I definitely needed a mentality change, and that aggressiveness to get back to the player I once was,” he said.
Defense suits his strengths
The change between his ears in the offseason, Mack said, stemmed from the newfound influences of defensive line coach Elijah Robinson, defensive coordinator Mike Elko and strength coach Jerry Schmidt.
“My mentality is different, and that comes from coaching,” Mack said. “And the way coach Elko has the defense set up, it kind of fits more what I’m really good at — getting up the field and penetrating and stuff like that. I’ve changed a lot.”
It’s not all chatter from the player’s end, either. New A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said this summer Mack “made as much progress as anybody” in the offseason, based on a revitalized approach.
“I’ve gone through a lot of good mental and physical changes,” Mack said. “And I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been in since I’ve been in college.”
Mack is built like a bowling ball at 6-1, 320 — ask the two pins in the Nevada backfield — and combatting weight gain has been an ongoing challenge for the former Gladewater High standout. At the Aggies’ camp media day earlier this week, Mack appeared as slim and fit as any time he’s been on campus.
Elko’s scheme is more Mack’s style, the lineman added, than that of former defensive coordinator John Chavis under thencoach Kevin Sumlin, who was fired in November.
“Coach Chavis was just a little more sideways and lateral, and plays on the blocks a little longer,” Mack said. “Coach Elko definitely wants you to get off the blocks and get up the field.”
The Aggies were bad on defense once again under Chavis in what turned out to be that staff ’s final season, in finishing 78th nationally in total defense and 70th in rushing defense, allowing 171 yards per game on the ground in 2017.
Mack’s offseason emergence on the defensive interior has in part allowed Elko to shift starting defensive tackle Kingsley Keke to defensive end, especially after starting end Micheal Clemons was sidelined by a foot injury in camp, although he’s expected back early in the season.
“Keke to the outside was something we discussed prior to the injury,” Elko said. “We felt like there was potentially a need against some of the teams in this league to play a biggerbodied kid out there, anyway. The injury expedited that process a little bit.”
Turning back the clock
Fisher hired Robinson from the same position at Baylor, and the new defensive line coach immediately turned to game tape to inspire Mack. Not tape from college — where his tackles each season have decreased from 32 to 25 to 19 — but from Gladewater.
“He was showing me film of my high school days and telling me I needed to get back to being that player,” said Mack, a career backup to date in college. “He’s definitely given me that mentality and the technique to get back to doing that.”
Mack was an Under Armour All-American at Gladewater, and in one of the state’s most ballyhooed recruiting battles in 2015 ultimately chose A&M over Texas, LSU and TCU. He has worn No. 5 for the Aggies, but in his last go-round in college he’s sporting No. 34 — familiar digits to Gladewater fans.
“I want to play like I did in high school,” Mack said of reverting to his Gladewater number.