BROOKINGS — Mason McCormick hasn’t been a stranger to his home state since becoming a Pittsburgh Steeler.
The former Sioux Falls Roosevelt and South Dakota State guard was drafted by the Steelers two years ago, earned a starting role right away as a rookie and spent his second year in the league protecting future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but he still makes regular appearances around his hometown and alma mater. He and his fiancee Addison Hirschman were in Sioux Falls over the weekend rooting for Hirschman’s former team as they earned another NCAA tournament berth, and on Tuesday McCormick was at the SJAC watching former teammates as the Jackrabbits kicked off spring practice in their second year under coach Dan Jackson.
McCormick and Hirschmann will be married next month and the two-time national champion will soon be headed back to Pittsburgh to prepare for his third season and first under new Steelers coach Mike McCarthy.
McCormick took a few minutes during Tuesday morning’s practice to chat with Matt Zimmer about his second year in the league and his early impressions on the work Jackson is doing to get SDSU back into the FCS title picture.
MZ: How was year two in the league?
MM: It was good. It was much better than year one, for sure.
MZ: For you, you mean?
MM: Yeah, just knowing what I was getting myself into, being more comfortable, being more established. It was a really good year two.
MZ: Do you feel like you learned more? Because I know you kind of got thrown in as a rookie and talked about how much you learned in year one.
MM: Yeah, no, I definitely learned a lot. Everything, you know, being in your second year kind of becomes more second nature. You have to think about less. It allows you to play a little faster. It was nice. I thought it went well.
MZ: What was it like playing with Aaron Rodgers?
MM: Awesome. Yeah, I loved playing with Aaron. He taught me a lot. He’s really good to all of us, especially on the O-line. He takes care of us. He’s awesome.
Mason McCormick made his first NFL start on Sunday against the Colts.
Pittsburgh Steelers
MZ: That had to be kind of surreal. I mean, he was winning MVP awards when you were like eight years old. Was that kind of weird the first time you were in the huddle with him?
MM: For sure. For sure, it was weird right away. But I just couldn’t believe how down to earth he was and how much he just kind of took us under his wing. It was an open book to us. We could ask him whatever questions we wanted, and he always shot us straight. It was pretty cool because he didn’t have to be like that. But he really was.
MZ: Do you think he’ll come back?
MM: We’ll see. It’s up in the air. I mean, I really hope he does. We all love blocking for him, but it’s ultimately his decision, I guess. It’s been a long time. We’ll see. I hope he does.
MZ: Were you disappointed that Coach (Mike) Tomlin stepped down?
MM: Change stinks, you know. We all loved Mike T. But we’re excited for the new group of coaches, and Coach McCarthy will do a good job. I’ve heard nothing but awesome things about him and my new O-line coach and our offensive coordinator. So it should be good.
Former SDSU guard Mason McCormick was one of the top rookies in the NFL this year for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
USA Today photo
MZ: You know, something I tell people all the time that’s so cool is waking up on Sunday, turning on the NFL, and no matter what game is on, there’s a Jackrabbit in there almost all the time. Has that been kind of cool for you? Almost every stadium you go to, you’ve got a former teammate.
MM: Super cool, yeah. It’s awesome to be able to play against former Jacks. Not so much Tucker (Kraft), because Tucker kind of got after us this year when we played him on, I think it was Sunday night or one of the night games (Kraft had eight catches for 143 yards and 2 TDs in a Packers win over the Steelers).
But it was still awesome to see, yeah. It’s just so rewarding to see the former Jacks guys have success. We’ve got a lot now, and hopefully it can continue to grow. I know it will with Mark (Gronowski) and Evan (Beerntsen) and some of the guys coming out here. But it’s definitely cool.
MZ: What’s your sense for how things are going here under Dan?
MM: Good, good. I come to a decent amount of their workouts and just watch and throw pointers where I can and stay back. But they’re doing a good job. They’re working their asses off. And I don’t know, I think they’re further along than I personally would have anticipated. I think they look pretty good. And I think they’re working super hard, which is a big part of South Dakota State culture.
MZ: I don’t quite remember. Did you and Dan cross paths here?
SDSU’s Mason McCormick (60), offensive line coach Ryan Olson and tackle Garret Greenfield (74) at practice on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
MM: Yes. I had two years with Dan. He was here in ’18 and ’19, so I got to know him well. He was great then and I’m glad he’s the coach now.
MZ: You know talking about all your former teammates that are in the NFL, then you’ve got Jimmy (Rogers) at Iowa State now, Jason Eck at New Mexico, killing it. That’s got to be cool too, right? I know what a huge influence those two were on you.
MM: It’s awesome. I went down actually to Iowa State a couple weekends ago. Addison and I went to a basketball game with her family, they’ve been Iowa State fans right a long time. And I got to see Jimmy and hang out and chat with him. It was really good to see those guys for sure.
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.