Michigan State football: Big-time 4-star LB target locks in official visit

Michigan State football is looking to land four-star linebacker Dylan Williams in the 2024 class and getting an official is huge.

Now that spring ball is coming to a close, Michigan State football fans will look for some recruiting momentum this summer to satisfy their appetites until kickoff comes Sept. 1.

This summer is a big one for Mel Tucker and staff. After a less than stellar season last year, getting some big targets on campus for official visits will be a big sign on where the program is being viewed nationally. Of course recruiting roster implications will be highly speculated as well. Michigan State picked up some big news on Monday that may help get that recruiting hype train moving ahead once again.

The first major target for Tucker to lock his official visit in for the summer is linebacker Dylan Williams. The 2024 four-star is ranked as the No. 141 player nationally. He currently attends Long Beach Poly in Long Beach, Calif. He holds offers from 30 schools so far. Michigan State, Texas, USC, Alabama, Michigan, and Auburn are a few of the schools competing for his services.

According to the 247Sports Composite, he is the 11th ranked linebacker in the 2024 class.

Williams is a target MSU has been interested in for some time now. The Spartans initially offered him in January of 2022. He initially committed to USC in April of 2022 but decided to reopen his commitment this past October. Tucker and staff have kept in constant contact over the course of the past year.

The four-star linebacker was in East Lansing for the spring kickoff earlier this month and loved it. He told On3’s Jason Killop that MSU is “for sure a top school for me” and that the atmosphere during the spring weekend “was amazing.” He even went further calling East Lansing “a great college town.”

There was some speculation as whether or not MSU had done enough to warrant a return visit this summer from Williams but the reviews he gave after the spring game cleared up any doubt. On Monday, Williams tweeted that he would be taking an official visit on the weekend of June 9. MSU’s Corey Robinson of 247Sports confirmed that he was locked in for that visit as well. It’s something to note that MSU is listed as the only team listed as “warm” for him on 247Sports. This means that MSU’s recruitment of him is definitely heating up. That is certainly a great start for the Spartans.

Prior to July 1 (new rule change will allow unlimited officials), recruits are only allowed to take five official visits during their recruitment. Because of that, him picking MSU for one of them makes it a big deal. According to 247, he will be officially visiting Michigan and Texas this June, however he has not confirmed that on social media. He did have unofficial visits with Miami and Texas earlier in the cycle as well.

Overall, locking Williams in for an official visit is a big get for MSU. They get the chance to pull out the red carpet and try to woo one of their more coveted prospects defensively outside of David Stone and Xadavien Sims. The linebacker shows big potential in being able to make plays in space and making impact tackles and stops. He had seven pass break ups in high school this year along with 79 total tackles. 29.5 of those tackles were for losses.

Landing a commitment from him would help keep momentum building. It would also give us another big piece to go alongside the young commits from this year’s class.