Michigan State football missed on David Stone over the weekend and the 2024 recruiting board is getting smaller.
Ladies and gentlemen. I can finally say it. It’s game week. The 2023 Michigan State football season officially kicks off Friday against my alma mater, Central Michigan, and I could not be more excited.
Over the summer, the football content was heavily centered around recruiting, and for good reason. Mel Tucker and staff took a newer approach to the recruiting trail this season compared to last. Doing so saw some early dividends but the staff quickly had to overcome some adversity with staff departures and some recruits flipping.
Now that the season itself is starting and a lot of major prospects are into their high school seasons, the question is, what’s next?
Let’s take a look at the remaining 2024 targets for Michigan State that are undecided as well as some potential spots they may look to fill before early signing day in December.
Currently, MSU sits at No. 52 overall for 2024 per the 247Sports Composite. They have 12 prospects pledging their services to Tucker next season. Two prospects (Nick Marsh and Andrew Dennis) are listing as four-star recruits per 247Sports. The other 10 prospects rank as three-stars. In total this summer, 27 total prospects took official visits to East Lansing. Three of them are still uncommitted and the Spartans are still actively involved for two of them.
Let’s break down the remaining targets and where they stand along with some other names and potential targets.
Jason Brown, 4-star RB
The first is four-star running back Jason Brown. The Seattle, Wash., product has been trending heavily towards the Spartans. He seems to be the mostly likely to land green still of the remaining prospects. Teaming up with current Michigan State commit Anthony Carrie would give the Spartans a real problem in the backfield for their opponents. Brown is deciding between the Spartans, Oregon, and Washington with the Michigan State and the Ducks pulling away as of late.
According to 247Sports insiders, three insiders have put in crystal ball predictions for MSU to land Brown. While Brown has set no commitment timeline, many folks believe he is closer to committing and we should know something soon.
DeAndre Carter, 4-star OL
DeAndre Carter was recruit that Michigan State had came on strong later in his recruiting process.
The talented tackle from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., is a force in the trenches. Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing 340 pounds, Carter embodies the size and strength Tucker has been looking for. He ranks No. 103 overall in the 2024 class per 247Sports and No. 14 from California.
Unlike Brown, Carter was pretty vocal about wanting to commit in early fall. He was rumored to still want to take a visit to Texas on Sept. 30 but he reportedly decided against that. Doing so all but ended his speculation of where he might go.
The Spartans put up an excellent fight for him but it appears they will fall just short. Carter will be committing on Sept. 3 and all signs are pointing to Auburn landing him. Whether or not the Spartans continue recruiting him and try flipping him post-commitment remains to be seen.
A potential hot start to the season for Michigan State football may be the best medicine to help that.
Jamari Howard, 4-star CB
Being completely honest, this recruitment has been a wild one from the get-go. Jamari Howard is the No. 111 player in the 2024 class per 247Sports and was once a Spartan commit. He initially committed to the Spartans early on. His September 2022 commitment surprised a lot of people and he and Nick Marsh have developed a good relationship and were eager to play together.
After some visits to East Lansing in the fall of 2022, Howard’s stock began rising and other major schools started offering the talented corner. In May of 2023, he decommitted from the Spartans and most thought that would be the end of his relationship with the staff. Surprisingly enough, giving credit to Tucker and Harlon Barnett, it was not. They kept in constant contact with Howard and landed another shot at an official visit with him, which happened on June 23.
Since then, not a lot of news has come out regarding where his recruitment is at. Many believe Florida State is still the front-runner. Also some believe that he is using other schools to try to leverage more money from Florida State’s NIL offers.
Regardless of all that, Michigan State football remains in the hunt for the talented corner. While I’m not confident this will end well for MSU, the longer we can stay in the hunt, the better shot we have at landing him come signing day. Should we exceed expectations on the field to start this season, look for Tucker to try to get Jamari back on campus one more time this fall before signing day. If he is able to do that, I’d say MSU has a really realistic shot to pull of the rare recommitment of someone who previously decommitted.
Francis Brewu, 3-star DL
Francis Brewu is another MSU target that has come on later in the cycle.
This is unique cause he is and has been a Pitt commit for quite some time. Brewu has also not formally visited East Lansing yet either. So what makes him so intriguing? The Spartans and also now Miami have been linked to him and rumors have spread about his growing discomfort with Pitt. Brewu has not said much publicly regarding this and reaffirmed his commitment to Pitt earlier this summer.
Even with the summer affirmation, many people believe there’s a lot of smoke behind the scenes. Tucker has constantly been in contact with him since offering him over the summer. He has also picked up more Power Five offers including Wisconsin and, as of this past weekend, Miami. After Miami missed on David Stone, it appeared they are looking to add another defensive line recruit in the mix.
While it’s been rumored that the Spartans are in good standing to potentially make a flip with Brewu, him receiving a Miami offer is troublesome. Miami has the NIL funding to outspend just about everyone. They also are certainly not happy how things transpired with Stone and potentially MSU’s role in that. Miami does have two high-end four stars already in this class, so playing time could be a factor.
We will follow this closely over the fall to see if a team may be able to flip Brewu from Pat Narduzzi.
Remaining positional targets
Those four are the most talked about names for recruiting targets for MSU. I am willing to bet another name or two may emerge before signing day as well. The Spartans are sitting at 12 commits right now and are certainly looking to add a few more before signing day. Tucker has been candid about his desire to also add via the transfer portal and we can assume there will be several additions once the season ends there.
Ideally I would like to see a high school class of about 13-15 (on the low end) coming in for 2024 to go with the transfer targets.
A position I would certainly like to see added to would be the defensive line. MSU has done a good job bolstering its secondary and offensive line so far in the 2024 cycle. I would like some more pieces on the defensive trenches. Landing another interior tackle and potentially an edge rusher could really help solidify the future pass rush after a really solid 2022 defensive line class.
Also ideally I would like to see a tight end or another big-bodied receiver signed on. Look, by all accounts, Nick Marsh has the potential to be really special. I expect him to become the go to threat who can get you a catch when needed. A bigger pass-catching threat at tight end or X-style receiver would be nice to eventually have. Doing so helps take some of the pressure and attention off of Marsh. This would allow some of our smaller speedster guys to operate more freely out of the slot as well.
Overall, Michigan State football is in a less-than-desirable place to end the 2024 cycle strong. While I think this class is going to end up being a little lower ranked than we initially had hoped, there are some seriously underrated players that will have a major impact on the roster in the future. The focus now will shift to the 2023 season and what the product does on the field will have major implications to how recruiting will finish off the field. If the Spartans can start quickly and fire off some wins to begin the year, we could see potential recruits be willing to start coming on campus for those mid fall games. Getting more guys to visit in October would be huge.
From there, Tucker can really sell what Spartan football is about. Hopefully Friday is just the beginning of that. Go Green.
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