Why Austin Mack's Early Husky Audition Was Such a Big Deal

The California quarterback, with his big frame and young age, was something not seen before in Montlake.

Everyone on the University of Washington football coaching staff remained relatively calm, offered praise in a restrained manner and let outsiders make up their own minds about Austin Mack.

Yet when adding it all up, Kalen DeBoer and his coaches privately had to know this past week was a milestone moment for them and their football program. Behind closed doors, they had to be effusively high-fiving and back-slapping each other, salivating over what the future might bring.

With Heisman Trophy candidate Michael Penix Jr. nursing a tired or sore arm and left to watch practice proceedings off to the side, Mack received a week-long and surely unexpected opportunity to show off his skills right away against the Huskies' top defenders.

Mack fumbled a couple of snaps, got touch-sacked a few too many times by holding onto the football and overshot plenty of receivers, but he offered up a quarterback prototype unlike any other the UW has ever had.

Take his huge 6-foot-6, 226-pound frame, add in his natural arm strength and in stature he best resembles now retired NFL great Ben Roethlisberger, though Mack might prove to be a lot more athletic.

When DeBoer took over at the UW 21 months ago, he vowed his teams would revolve around the quarterback position, that it would always be well-stocked with top-tier talent. 

"Of course, we'll always be quarterback-driven," he said at his news conference on his first day on the job in Montlake. "I think for any offense, that's important. As far as the quarterback can take you, it's always a big piece of what you can be."

Everything about Mack seems to fit the Husky football program mantra perfectly — in timing, raw ability and potential star power.

He's such a projected talent, Mack appears to be the ideal quarterback to lead the Huskies into a much tougher Big Ten, either next season or in 2025, depending on his development.

Mack, of course, is just 17, far from a finished product and getting a lot thrown at him. Whereas he should be preparing for his final season at Folsom High School in the California prison town of the same name, he reclassified, graduated early and will spend the upcoming season refining everything he brings to the position.

This means the Huskies most likely will get the maximum mileage out of him as he becomes a polished player, takes his turn as a Penix successor and in this day and age of the ready-made player probably doesn't use up all of his eligibility when considering an NFL career.

While the media won't be able to interact with Mack until he's more of a veteran player, the big kid seems to have the engaging personality and even the big smile of another young Seattle sports prodigy, Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez, which is a plus for UW fans.

DeBoer won't say it outright, but possibly the biggest disappointment he's encountered while in charge in Montlake — over and above dealing with a pair of one-score defeats last season — was having Ohio State sweep in and take promising South Dakota quarterback Lincoln Kienholz out from under him last December, persuading the touted recruit to flip on his UW commitment at a late hour.

Kienholz graded out as a special quarterback talent, a point accentuated by the fact the Buckeyes wanted him and the Huskies were prepared to build around him.

This development had to be especially difficult for DeBoer because the Huskies initially unearthed Kienholz in the coach's native South Dakota and pegged him as a program building block well before Ohio State and others caught on.

Yet DeBoer again appears to have come out ahead by how everything is unfolding. While he lost the services of Kienholz, the sudden turn of events enabled him to sign and expediently bring in Austin Mack, who just might turn out to be the better college and NFL quarterback while showing what he can do in the Big Ten, maybe going head to head with Kienholz at some point.

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