Senior Quarterback Jack Mangel is set to embark on his 4th season at Concord University. In his tenure, he has put up some incredible numbers and has led the Mountain Lions to an impressive record of 22-8 record thus far. The Athens Georgia native came to Concord amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and only played one game in his first season. In that one game, he flashed what would be the start of a prolific career at the University. In his debut, he threw for over 300 yards and 5 touchdowns. From that point forward, Mangel, and the Mountain Lions never looked back.
When asked about how the 2021 Covid season impacted Mangel, he was optimistic looking back at the experience.
“I think it was good for us, we were young then, I was just coming from Junior College, so I got to learn a lot. It was good for me because I had the chance to learn the offense and basically practice for a full year before I took a real snap.”
Jack Mangel
Mangel would continue to impress in his full first season, throwing for over 2,800 yards and 18 touchdowns. However, the team as a whole would struggle as they finished the season with a 4-6 record. Although the record wasn’t up to par, the team was competitive all season, losing four of the six games by one score, and losing two straight games by a combined 3 points.
“We learned from that season that we could be good because we were competing with the best teams in the conference. We had a chip on our shoulders by losing close games, so we knew that offseason that we had to learn how to win. People rode us off and thought we were going to be terrible again, but we showed that we could compete and that really set up our success in 2022.”
Jack Mangel
The signal caller would head the charge in the offseason in which he had to teach not only himself, but the entire team how to win.
The 2022 Mountain Lions would finish the season 9-2 and just miss the Division II playoffs. Mangle would have his best year yet, throwing for over 3,600 yards and 39 touchdowns. His incredible year would catapult Concord’s offense into the 8th-highest-scoring offense in the country. Mangel would also finish in the top 5 nationally in both passing yards and touchdowns.
Mangel would have only good things to say about the magical 2022 season.
“It was definitely the most fun year of football in my life, we had a lot of older guys on the team, it really helped that up front we had three seniors, so the chemistry was really there. It was a really special year, and it made it even more special that we were one of the best offenses in the country. Coming from a little town in West Virginia and showing we could play with anyone.”
Jack Mangel
Now on the cusp of his final collegiate season, Mangel is in a perfect position to enter his name into the record books. He is currently 4th all-time in passing yards and would need 3,011 yards to break the all-time passing record, held by Brian Novak. Mangel also just needs 10 touchdowns to surpass Novak again in passing touchdowns for a career. His incredible season last year landed him on the short list of names to win the Harlon Hill trophy, which is awarded to the best DII player in the country. Concord has never had a Harlon Hill trophy recipient, although star wideout Jarod Bowie was a finalist for the award last season.
Breaking records isn’t the top priority, winning football games is. However, Mangel says leaving a legacy here is one of the main reasons he came back to Concord.
“That was actually part of the reason I came back when all the coaching staff was changing, I actually entered the transfer portal, I didn’t know who the new coach would be, and I did pick up some Division 1 offers, and I could have gone Division 1. But I decided at the end of the day I wanted to leave my legacy here at Concord and be a part of one of the biggest turnarounds that could ever happen and maybe be in the record books too, so that all played into me coming back to Concord.”
Jack Mangel
The 2023 season did not start off the way Concord envisioned, dropping their first game of the season to Emory & Henry 56-10. Mangle and the Mountain Lions will look to bounce back on the road against the University of Charleston.
by Seth Ross