Championship dreams guide Luers star to Ohio State

The allure of national championships was too much for Austin Mack to overlook. The Bishop Luers High School senior wide receiver loved plenty about Ohio State, but the opportunity to play for a national championship every year was certainly toward the top of list. It’s one reason he gave his verbal commitment to the Buckeyes Sunday morning at the RAS Camp at The Summit, ending what has long been rumored to be his destination since Ohio State offered him nearly a year ago. “It’s huge man, that’s definitely one reason I wanted to go there because I was going to have an opportunity to play for a national championship team, and right now, we’re one of the top recruiting classes for 2016, so we’re doing pretty good,” Mack said. Mack picked the Buckeyes over offers from Tennessee, Notre Dame, Michigan and more. The reigning national champions are hoping the top rated recruit in Indiana according to Rivals, a national recruiting service, can come in and play the ‘X’ position for them, which current Buckeye Michael Thomas excelled at early in his career. The plan is for Mack to develop there and eventually move across the field later in his career. “That was definitely the thing I wanted to know where I was going to be playing at so I just know and can base where to work on from that,” Mack said. “It’s a good system for me and I can play in any system as long as they get their receivers the ball, and they have a good balance with their running backs, also, it’s like a 60-40, so it’s a pretty good ratio.” This ability to pass the ball well appealed to Mack, too. With a team that has plenty of talented quarterbacks currently on the roster, it gave him confidence whoever was throwing the ball would be strong when he arrives. “You know you want to go to a place where you can get the ball and knowing any guy on the team can get that done, that’s huge for me,” Mack said. “For me, though, just get it done, and they definitely have a great system and a lot of quarterbacks that can get it done.” Beyond the excellent football pedigree of Ohio State and coach Urban Meyer, Mack said the education and social life felt like the best fit. He talked about it with his family before making a decision, but he said he’s been certain he would go to Ohio State for awhile, even talking to other recruits about playing together in Columbus. With the official verbal commitment out of the way, Mack said he is focused on getting stronger and helping Luers win a state title this year. That doesn’t mean he isn’t already looking forward to playing for Ohio State and seeing some similar foes on the field when he arrives, like Wayne’s Auston Robertson and Homestead’s Ben Skowronek, who also committed to Big Ten programs Sunday. “That’s going to be extremely exciting, especially when we become upperclassmen at the college level,” Mack said. “I’ve made a lot of friends across the country as well, and it’s definitely just going to be fun and good opportunity. It’s going to be like the high school days, like old times.”

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