Michigan State football: Surprise 4-star top-100 DB visiting for Junior Day

Michigan State football is getting a surprise visit from four-star safety Alex Graham, a top-100 recruit from IMG Academy.

Over 50 recruits are flocking to East Lansing this weekend to visit Michigan State football. This is the first Junior Day that Jonathan Smith has held since taking over as head coach, and he has put together an impressive list of visitors.

Most of the recruits visiting are local to the Midwest, with the majority, 28, from Michigan. But there are quite a few recruits from other parts of the country visiting as well.

Earlier on Saturday, word came out that a high-profile safety in the 2025 class is making a surprise visit to Michigan State this weekend.

A big-time late addition to Michigan State's junior day: Class of 2025 four-star safety @Alexgraham__3 is making the trip.

Graham now plays at IMG Academy in Florida, but was previously at Cass Tech in Detroit.

Check out the full list of visitors here:https://t.co/rR3zuSExF8

— Ryan O'Bleness (@ryanobleness) February 3, 2024

Four-star safety Alex Graham

Alex Graham is a four-star safety originally from Detroit Cass Tech. He plays for IMG Academy which regularly sends its players all over the country to play D1 college football. Current Spartan Jordan Hall is one of many recruits that MSU has gotten from IMG, and Carson Cooper on the MSU basketball team is also from here as well.

Alex is one of the best players in the entire country. According to 247Sports, he is the No. 91 player in the country and the No. 11 player at his position.

Graham began his high school career in Detroit before moving down to IMG before his junior season. He is elite in his movement both in man and zone coverage and is not afraid to get physical and make the big hit. He didn’t play a ton as a junior, but that’s due to the high level of competition at IMG. So I imagine he’ll get a significant amount of playing time this year as a senior.

Recruiting competition

One team currently stands out in his recruitment, and that’s the Michigan Wolverines. Graham does have one crystal ball prediction in favor of the Wolverines, but that was made in November of 2022. With the prediction being that old, I don’t think it holds any value anymore.

Graham also has other offers from Alabama, Georgia, Miami, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Oregon, USC, and many others. But I like the position Michigan State football is in right now.

For him to visit East Lansing when he could’ve gone to many other schools around the country is very telling. Also, the fact that he is originally from the state of Michigan and likely has a lot of family in the area is a good sign for the Spartans as well.

But what excites me the most is Graham keeping this visit a secret until the day he comes on a visit. That’s not uncommon for recruits this highly ranked because they sometimes don’t want to make it known who is recruiting them the hardest. Michigan State also doesn’t want to give other schools a chance to negatively recruit them and get him to visit somewhere else instead.

We’ll have to wait and see how this visit goes to get a read on how much he likes MSU. But there’s no doubt Michigan State is near the top of his list right now.