Michigan State football: How big of a loss is Charles Brantley?

For a third straight offseason, Charles Brantley has informed Michigan State football that he intends to transfer.

Michigan State cornerback Charles Brantley has entered the transfer portal, @On3sports has learned.

The redshirt junior has 103 career tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 5 interceptions and 23 pass deflections. Will be a top CB in the portal.https://t.co/wMrfFrcNOy pic.twitter.com/RdD5gf7m48

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) December 10, 2024

This was one of those “I hope he doesn’t transfer but I won’t be surprised if he does” situations leading up to the announcement. No one was truly surprised, especially with the departure of Demetrice Martin, but it’s unfortunate that he’s leaving after a career year. He’s choosing to weigh his options in the portal and, who knows, maybe he’ll return again.

But it doesn’t feel like Jonathan Smith is the kind of coach to re-recruit someone who has entered the portal. He helped lure Spartans out of it last offseason but that was just because they left after the Mel Tucker firing and didn’t give the new coach a chance.

This one feels especially painful because Brantley was just talking up the coaching staff near the end of the season.

It ain’t the coaches it’s the players, they can’t play for us they can only play through us, some of us get it some of us don’t. 💯💚 love my staff!

— cinco5™️ (@cbrantley22) November 17, 2024

Brantley’s defense of his coaching staff made it feel like there was no way he’d be looking for opportunities elsewhere, but clearly that’s just the nature of the transfer portal and college football these days.

So how big of a loss is Brantley?

Well, the All-Big Ten honorable mention selection just had his best season as a Spartan with 27 tackles, two tackles for loss, three picks, including a pick-six of over 100 yards, and seven pass breakups. He looked like that lockdown corner we all expected after a strong freshman season and didn’t quite see live up to his potential until 2024. But he had one problem: staying healthy.

Through his four years at Michigan State, he played in 30 total games, meaning that he missed 19 contests due to injury.

Having a lockdown cornerback is nice, but it hurts when he can’t stay on the field for 12-plus games. Is that his fault? Absolutely not, but it also seemed to happen every season. He couldn’t finish the season which tested the depth of the position.

This is a huge loss because Brantley is one of the best cornerbacks in the Big Ten but it allows Smith to go into the portal to find a guy of similar skill level who can stay healthy and who has starting experience.

Hopefully Brantley can reconsider a return to Michigan State football again because this one definitely hurts.