As Power Five football offers pile up, this Dunlap star just puts in the work

DUNLAP — How 2024 began for Mack Sutter could not be more the opposite of how his 2023 ended.

The Dunlap two-sport sophomore athlete recently saw his college football recruiting blow up nearly overnight, just as he is making his return from injury to the basketball court.

Sutter received five Power 5 scholarship offers since late January. Ole Miss (Feb. 3), Illinois (Feb. 2), Texas A & M (Feb. 1), Iowa (Jan. 30) and Nebraska (Jan. 24) have all come calling for the 6-foot-6, 220-pounder who plays quarterback, linebacker and wide receiver.

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“I didn’t really expect to be offered this soon,” Sutter said. “I kind of thought it’d happen when I’d go to some camps this summer, but after Nebraska offered me … I kind of knew that it was going to start picking up because once schools saw that I had one offer, they were going to start hitting me up.

“More and more have come.”

Some schools see Sutter as an athlete, waiting to get more film on him before they narrow down an exact position. Oothers want him strictly as a tight end.

“I’ll play wherever any team needs me,” Sutter said, “but I feel I’ll be the best in college as like more of a receiving tight end.”

Sutter's bloodline has been well-documented. His father is former NFL player Eddie Sutter, and his cousins are the four Mangieri brothers, all of whom played Division-I sports. The younger Sutter, though, has put in the work to play at the next level.

During his 2023 football campaign, Sutter helped the Eagles go 6-4 before losing in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs. He threw for 710 yards with eight touchdowns while posting 20 tackles and five tackles for loss in earning all-Mid-Illini Conference first-team honors as well as a spot on the Journal Star all-area at linebacker.

“I’m just trying to take (recruiting) day by day,” Mack said, “because it’s pretty fun to be in this process. I’m just trying to enjoy it, all the moments.”

Advice from his NFL veteran father

But that doesn’t mean Mack isn’t relying on Eddie for guidance. He says his dad has given him a lot of good advice, telling him to be respectful and open to coaches.

One piece of wisdom sticks out.

“For him, to keep a level head with everything and to not let it consume him,” said Eddie, who played 79 career NFL games as a linebacker for Cleveland, Baltimore and Atlanta. “It was an exciting week. He had five offers in a week and they’re not little schools. They’re big programs.”

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A big part of it, Eddie says, is although Mack "has been gifted forever" and "a talented athlete who plays with confidence," his work ethic remains undeniable.

Recruiting, though, is one thing that definitely has changed since Eddie played for Northwestern from 1989 to 1992. Eddie received interest letters in the mail, then made visits to Northwestern, Northern Illinois and Illinois State before choosing the Wildcats. Social media has changed everything with recruits posting their offers, he said.

“Once you do that, other schools become interested,” Eddie said. “It’s self-promotion, but it’s not just to say, ‘Hey, look at me’. It’s more along the lines of ‘I got an offer here’ and when you get that, all these schools follow Twitter. They follow (those offers).

“It’s important for the athlete to get exposure to put that on their social media. It’s not about, ‘I want a bunch of attention from friends.’ That’s not really it. It’s more along the lines of ‘I need other schools to notice me, too.’ That’s what happened with Mack.”

Nebraska told Mack that he was underrecruited even as a sophomore and his interest as a prospect would explode when they offered him, according to Eddie.

“They were 100 percent correct,” he said.

Coming back from a basketball injury

Mack’s second varsity basketball season almost didn’t happen.

He rolled his right ankle in practice before the 2023-24 season began, forcing him to miss two weeks including the season’s first five games. The forward was practicing to make his debut on Dec. 8 against Limestone when Sutter re-sprained it, causing his ankle to swell and once again sideline him.

The initial diagnosis was a gut punch: two ruptured ligaments that would require season-ending surgery. However, a second opinion — this one from a specialist with the Chicago Bears — revealed the scar tissue in the ankle could heal over time and everything, ultimately, would be fine.

“I don’t really notice anything (now),” Mack said, noting he is wearing a brace and still doing weekly rehab, “but it’s not much of a difference. It feels the same, kind of.”

His return to the starting lineup came Jan. 20, being absent from the first 17 where the Eagles were 7-10. Since his comeback, Dunlap is 5-2 highlighted by a 39-37 buzzer-beating win over Washington on Friday night.

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Sutter, who scored 11 in victory, helped the Dunlap seniors beat Washington for the first time in their four years.

“He’s still getting his feet back,” Dunlap coach Patrick Pokorny said. “It’s hard to jump in especially without the reps in practice to get going again. I’m seeing little improvements each game as he goes, so obviously it’s great to have him back."

Despite his ballhandling skills, Sutter is the tallest Eagles player and will be occupying a big spot in the post. He scored a season-high 15 points against Deer Creek-Mackinaw in his fifth game, then went for 12 versus Canton.

Expect to see more double-figure games from Sutter as the regular season wraps up in the next two weeks.

“To have that inside presence is huge,” Pokorny said. “When he starts to get more and more comfortable, and get his reps up, we’ll be, obviously, a more complete team I would say.”

Regaining that flow within the team eventually returned to normal after his time away.

“I feel like it didn’t take too long (for me to fit back in),” Mack said, “because most of these guys I played with them last year, played with them in the summer, so we all kind of have good chemistry, so coming back into it wasn’t too much of a problem.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: College football recruiting: Profile of Mack Sutter of Dunlap