Anthony Poindexter explains how King Mack earned his green light

During Tuesday’s Penn State football press conference, James Franklin announced which freshmen earned the green light this season. What that means is these players will play so much that they will not have to redshirt in 2023. The players who earned that right include Tony Rojas, Elliot Washington, Zion Tracy, and King Mack. Then, yesterday safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter had an interesting thing to say about a true freshman he has been coaching.

Anthony Poindexter explains how King Mack earned his green light

During his media availability on Thursday afternoon, Anthony Poindexter fielded a lot of questions. The spotlight has shifted to Poindexter over the past few seasons as the play at safety has rapidly improved. In fact, it has improved so much that Penn State has been able to produce back-to-back NFL draft picks in Jaquan Brisker and Ji’Ayir Brown. Both players transferred from Lackawanna Community College and developed under Poindexter.

A question was posed to Poindexter, for what he saw from King Mack to earn himself the green light.

Pointdexter said, “Well, I think you know when he got here, the stage wasn’t too big for him. I mean, the kid is just a natural football player. He has some physical traits that you can’t teach. Obviously, one of them is his speed but he’s a much better tackler than I thought he would be for his frame and his size. And you know, he just picked it up pretty good. So, you know, he’s a really good football player we recruited him to play, so I mean if you’re ready to go we’re going to play him.”

It’s easy to see that the trust has been established by King Mack in just a short amount of time with the coaching staff. Mack had to prove himself in fall camp, in which he was able to do just that.

James Franklin spent time coaching up King Mack this summer

During one of the practices for the Penn State football team, the public was able to attend. At that practice this summer, a video emerged of Coach Franklin spending one-on-one time with King Mack. You could tell how passionate Frankin was to help Mack get in the right position. It’s instances like this that make you believe that Mack is going to be a big part of Penn State during his career. Now, that he has earned his green light, let’s see if he can make an impact early on Saturday night.

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