Michigan State football: Northwestern transfer CB planning visit

Michigan State football is getting set to host one of the top cornerbacks in the transfer portal in Northwestern’s Rod Heard.

Michigan State football coach Jonathan Smith has his sights set on another high-profile transfer. This time it’s star cornerback Rod Heard. Rod has spent his entire career, spanning five seasons, at Northwestern and will transfer to play one final season.

Northwestern cornerback transfer Rod Heard has set official visits with Michigan State and Notre Dame.

He's still working on setting one with Michigan as well. (VIP) https://t.co/dCnLdxH8Vv pic.twitter.com/Rc3NRO7MM1

— Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) January 1, 2024

Career in review

Rod has had a very successful career during his time with Northwestern. It took a while for him to get going, mainly because he didn’t get much playing time during his first three seasons. However, he did account for 31 tackles and two forced fumbles during his 3rd season. The beginning of his fourth season in Evanston is when things really began taking off for him.

During his fourth season, Heard doubled his tackles (67). He also got his first career sack and interception as well. This past season, in his fifth year, he took it up another notch. He recorded 84 tackles, two forced fumbles, a sack, and an interception. Michigan State could use a guy who can contribute on the defensive end in that many different ways in East Lansing.

Recruiting history

Heard is from Farmington Hills, Mich., and was part of the 2019 recruiting class. He was a three-star cornerback out of high school and a top-1,000 player in his class. Rod had offers out of high school from Michigan State, Michigan, and Penn State, but he ultimately chose to play at Northwestern.

Fast forward to this year and he is a much more respected recruit in the transfer portal — 247Sports still has him as a three-star, but he is ranked much higher now in the portal than he ever was in high school. He currently is the No. 177 player in the transfer portal and the No. 16 cornerback.

Midwest competition

Michigan State football is going to have to battle its top rival in this recruitment. He only has offers from two schools right now, and that is Michigan State and Michigan. He has a visit scheduled to East Lansing from Jan. 5-6 but does not have one set with Michigan yet. As of now, he does plan to visit Michigan before making his final decision.

Notre Dame is also in the mix for Heard as well. The Irish have him visiting directly after his MSU visit from Jan. 6-7. They have not offered him yet, but I imagine that will come during his visit.

Smith and his staff have been hot in the portal so far and I like the Spartans’ chances here as well. With Notre Dame not offering yet and no visit scheduled with Michigan, there’s a chance he will be a Spartan soon. If his visit here goes well and Notre Dame ends up not offering him, Heard may decide to commit to the Spartans without even visiting Michigan.

I expect this recruitment to wrap up fairly quickly with the spring semester starting soon. It all just depends on how his visits go next weekend and if he does decide to schedule a visit in Ann Arbor or not.