Jerry Mack took over a Kennesaw State team that went 2-10 in its first year as an FBS program. In his first year on the job, he won double-digit games, won the Conference USA title and got a suburban Atlanta commuter school truly excited about football.

Naturally, bigger programs noticed. Syracuse snatched up All-CUSA quarterback Amari Odom, who came to Kennesaw State from Wofford and beat out former Indiana starter Dexter Williams II. Meanwhile, Kansas State grabbed Elijah Hill, a freshman from Bryant, Ark., who showed up last summer and then led the Owls in sacks and tackles for loss.

How did Mack react to those key losses?

“I love it,” he said this week on Andy and Ari On3. “I tell these guys when we recruit them, whether they’re transfers or whether they’re incoming high school players, if you’re leaving for what would be a better financial opportunity, that means that we have probably done something right, and we’ve had success.”

Mack, 45, is part of a new generation of coaches that understands fighting the gravity of the transfer portal is a fruitless endeavor. He chooses instead to embrace it and use it as a tool, even when the portal will siphon away his best players if he wins. Mack was a head coach in the previous era of the sport — from 2014 to 2017 at North Carolina Central — so he remembers the old days. But before he got the Kennesaw State job, he spent the previous five years watching coaches operate and picking the brains of athletic department administrators. 

From stints at Rice (offensive coordinator), Tennessee (running backs) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (running backs), Mack learned that the coaches who show players they can add to their value will succeed at any level. The ones who complain about circumstances beyond their control can struggle at any level.

Mack also realized that players and coaches in college football are doing the same thing. It’s a race to the top level, and if you aren’t a starter or a head coach at Georgia or Ohio State, then you’re trying to climb. So he’ll try to help as many players and assistants up the ladder as he can.

“It’s just being able to stay fluid,” Mack said. “Coaches have the same opportunity as players. I have a lot of young coaches on my staff, so the reality of it is, my offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, position coaches, those guys, as we continue to have success, they’re going to get poached as well.”

And as Mack pointed out, if players and coaches are departing for more money, then it means the Owls are winning. The trick is continually refilling the talent tank. Mack only lost one assistant, but he knows he’ll lose more if Kennesaw State succeeds again this season. 

As for the players, he unintentionally engineered a QB swap. Odom is headed to Syracuse, where the hope is that Steve Angeli — who tore his Achilles tendon last season — will be ready to play by the start of the season. Last year, Angeli beat out LSU transfer Rickie Collins to become the Orange’s starter. Mack knew Collins from Woodlawn High in Baton Rouge. Mack had visited the school while in town to recruit Dutchtown High back Dylan Sampson for Tennessee. Mack had a good sense of Collins’ physical traits from seeing him in high school, and Mack quizzed friends on the Syracuse staff about Collins’ practice habits. Satisfied the QB would fit the offense and the culture, Mack executed the “trade.”*

*For Mack’s sake, hopefully it works as well as the unintentional Nico Iamaleava-for-Joey Aguilar swap worked for Mack’s former boss Josh Heupel’s offense at Tennessee last season.

The unspoken piece of this is that if Kennesaw State has another excellent season, Mack’s players and assistants won’t be the only ones in demand. Athletic directors understand the degree of difficulty for what Mack did last year, and if he keeps winning, they’ll be inquiring about his availability as well.

Mack isn’t talking about that, though. He’s merely hoping interest in all the Owls remains high come next winter.

“We consider this a land of opportunity,” he said. “So that means when you walk into our building and when you walk into our program, coaches are going to pour into you. Our support staff is going to pour into you. And what that’s going to create for you is hopefully you have options at the end of the day, at the end of the season. My hope and my dream is that everybody in our program creates options for themselves.”