DUNLAP — Mack Sutter put one last touch on his high school football career.
The Dunlap four-star tight end officially signed with Alabama on Wednesday, representing the finale of the Peoria-area’s most sought after college football recruit.
Sutter committed to the Crimson Tide back in June following a recruitment that saw him garner 47 offers — the most by any tight end nationwide in the Class of 2026.
“It just feels like I finally completed it all,” the 2025 Journal Star football player of the year said. “I mean, it’s going to suck moving on my friends and stuff, but I’m just grateful that it’s the start of a new journey, and I just can’t believe it.
“It just unreal that it’s finally going to start here in a few weeks.”
Mack Sutter signs with Alabama
Sutter, the No. 1 overall ranked player in Illinois by 247Sports.com, was joined by a small contingent of family, friends and media where he put is signature on an athletic grant-in-aid agreement. That paperwork in Oct. 2024 replaced the traditional National Letter of Intent.
He then thanked everyone in attendance, especially his high school teammates.
“It’s been my life,” Sutter said of playing for Dunlap. “I mean, this is all I’ve known, just football, even coming in the offseason and talking with coach (Brett Cazalet), all my friends, like, that’s just all it’s been through these four years.
“So I mean, it’s going to be a little crazy, like not having that, but it’s just been the best four years of my life battling with my guys and all of us growing in the weight room and on the field.”
What is next for Mack Sutter?
Sutter’s next couple of weeks will be a bit of whirlwind. He’ll graduate from Dunlap at the end of the semester — he has eight more days of class, celebrate the holidays then report to Tuscaloosa on Jan. 5.
There his sole focus will turn to getting ready for strictly playing tight end.
“I’m really excited about that,” said Sutter, who played tight end, quarterback, h-back, defensive end, linebacker and punter during his prep tenure, “because here at Dunlap, I was playing all over, which I love doing for my team, but just getting down there, really learning one position and learning from like top coaches in the country.
“I feel like it’s going to make my growth (as a tight end) grow a lot, and … just get a ton better at every, every aspect of the tight end (position).”
Dunlap coach Brett Cazalet echoed that sentiment.
“As someone who’s watched him up close on the field for years now,” Cazalet said, “and in a month or so, when he’s able to focus on one position and he can pour all his effort and energy into learning that position of tight end at Alabama. There is zero doubt in my mind that he will become one of the best they’ve ever had to do it.
“His ceiling is incredibly high and his effort will take him the rest of the way.”
As a 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior, Sutter helped lead Dunlap to a 9-3 record and a run to the Class 6A quarterfinals. On offense, he had 31 receptions for 596 yards and nine touchdowns, adding a 29-yard TD pass. Defensively, Sutter recorded 55.5 total tackles — 5.0 tackles for loss, 1.0 sack, one forced fumble and an interception.
Alabama, which plays Georgia on Saturday in the SEC Championship game, opens its 2026 season at home against East Carolina on Sept. 5.
Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: ‘New journey’: Mack Sutter closes Dunlap chapter, signs with Alabama
Reporting by Adam Duvall, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
