Michigan State football trending for in-state 2025 ATH

Michigan State football is trending for one of the state’s top recruits in borderline four-star athlete Desmond Straughton.

Michigan State football appears to be in great position for a top recruit from the state of Michigan. Jonathan Smith and his staff have revamped recruiting in East Lansing in a short amount of time, and they appear to be on the horizon of earning a big commitment in the 2025 class.

3⭐️ ATH Desmond Straughton is now up to FOUR crystal ball predictions to commit to MSU!

GO GREEN❗️

— Daily MSU (@daily_msu) February 15, 2024

Three-star athlete Desmond Straughton

Desmond Straughton is a three-star athlete from Roseville, Mich. I know a lot of people don’t get that excited over recruiting three-stars, but Straughton is different from the norm. In fact, 247Sports has Desmond rated an 89, which is typically the cutoff point from a three-star and a four-star. So he is very close to earning that coveted fourth star. Straughton is also the No. 15 athlete in the country and the No. 5 overall player from the state of Michigan as well.

A whopping four crystal ball predictions came in for Straughton to commit to Michigan State on Feb. 15. This includes three from MSU reporters as well as one national recruiting expert. This usually is a great indicator that the Spartans are the heavy favorites in the recruitment.

All of this good news comes on the heels of MSU’s Junior Day event held earlier this month. Straughton was a visitor for this event, so he must’ve loved what he saw.

Recruiting the state of Michigan is extremely important

I think it goes without saying that recruiting the state of Michigan is extremely is important. However, now is as important of a time as ever. With a brand new coaching staff in town, it’s important for them to become known by the local high school coaches and recruiting contacts in the state. It’s also important because of what is going on with the school down the road.

Michigan coming off a national championship doesn’t help recruiting the state at all. Similarly to when MSU was in their glory days under Mark Dantonio, recruiting the state becomes a lot easier when you find success on the field. So now more than ever is an important time to beat Michigan for some in-state recruits.

One thing on MSU’s side in these recruiting battles with Michigan is all the drama in their program right now. The NCAA violation allegations and Jim Harbaugh and most of his staff leaving Ann Arbor does not help their image. So Smith needs to take advantage of this opportunity to get MSU on top with the recruits in the state.

This may just appear to be one small step in the rebuild of MSU’s program, but winning as many recruitments in Michigan will help immensely in the long run. Straughton could be the guy that helps turn the tide for recruiting this state, and it appears the Spartans have a great chance at landing him.