Michigan State football: Brandon Baldwin pulls name out of transfer portal

Michigan State football is getting another key offensive lineman back as Brandon Baldwin has withdrew from the portal.

Shortly after news broke that presumptive starting right tackle Ethan Boyd was removing his name from the transfer portal, Brandon Baldwin, last year’s starter at left tackle for 10 games, followed suit. In the last two seasons, Baldwin has 15 starts, all coming at left tackle. He announced his entrance to the portal on Nov. 29. Baldwin did not make any of his offers during his stint in the portal public. 

Michigan State offensive tackle Brandon Baldwin, who entered the transfer portal in late November, has withdrawn his name from the portal, @chris_hummer and I have learned @247sports.

Baldwin has made 15 career starts for the Spartans, including 10 this season.… pic.twitter.com/ls8wK6G8uT

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 11, 2023

Baldwin is the second Spartan to remove his name from the portal on Monday

Brandon Baldwin started his career utilizing the JUCO route, playing for Independence Community College. He was rated as the No. 4 juco offensive tackle in the 2021 class, and No. 48 overall juco prospect. Much like Ethan Boyd, Baldwin redshirted in 2021 and did not see game action. 

In 2022, Baldwin saw the field for nine games, including five starts at left tackle, including the season opener. While Baldwin missed a few games with a presumed injury. I say presumed, as Mel Tucker never disclosed injuries, but Baldwin had a stretch of four games with 12 combined offensive snaps. He started at left tackle for the Spartan upset of ranked Illinois, playing 60 snaps. After starting the final games of 2022, Baldwin looked locked in as the starting left tackle for the 2023 season.

The 2023 season saw Baldwin start all of the games he was healthy for. He missed the contests against Ohio State and Nebraska, but otherwise played well. Baldwin’s best game of the season came against Minnesota, where he led the line in PFF grades with a 79.6 pass block grade and a 77.6 overall grade. Baldwin picked a good game to shine, as he will be seeing the Minnesota defensive scheme a lot more in practice this season, as Jonathan Smith brings over Joe Rossi. 

Much like Boyd, it is presumed that Baldwin entered the portal to see his options after Mel Tucker was fired and Baldwin’s offensive line coach, Chris Kapilovic, was let go at the end of the season. Jonathan Smith and Jim Michalczik’s scheme has led to previous success, and that success brings back Baldwin.

Baldwin joins the aforementioned Boyd and Darius Snow (who withdrew on Dec. 6) as Spartans to withdraw from the portal. The portal keeps getting sweeter today, and if commit Justin Denson’s tweet is anything to go off of, the good news might not be over today.

Ik one 😏

— Justin “The slim reaper” Denson Jr. ✞ (@Jetdenson) December 11, 2023

As said during the Spida Nealy Spartan Twitter frenzy of 2020, “I think we ain’t done yet.”