Anthony Carrie recently discussed why he chose MSU. Let’s talk about how MSU can use that to better itself on the recruiting trail.
If you’ve been living under a rock over the past few weeks, you may have missed that Michigan State football has been on a hot streak on the recruiting trail of late. In just over two weeks, the Spartans have landed eight total prospects for the 2024 class, two of which rank in the top 270 nationally. One of the prized commits from the “Red Cedar Heater” — as Justin Thind called it — that is taking place is four-star running back Anthony Carrie.
We’ve talked about Carrie in great detail here. Everything so far points to him being one of the gems of this class. Both on and off the field. He has already stated that now he is turning into a recruiter to help further the class.
Also, his interests off the field lead one to believe he in fact is a model person and goal-oriented. Something the football staff looks for in a future Spartan Dawg.
Carrie released a video on his YouTube channel on Sunday discussing just why MSU was the fit for him. Check out his full reasoning:
So to summarize why he chose MSU, he felt they were the school for him for the reasons below:
Was the best fit for him in terms of playing time
Felt schematically it was the best fit for him
The level of comfort with the staff was outstanding
Supporting his apparel brand/content-creating endeavors
Loves the business school and the opportunities it provides
East Lansing as a town and location
The biggest takeaways for me from this were two things: one, how self-aware and driven Carrie is as a person, and two, it gives a lot of insight into how MSU is selling itself to players.
It is always nice getting to see players in a setting such as a personal social media channel. YouTube/blogging is a great way for fans and outsiders to see players in a setting they are comfortable with and can possibly open up. This video showed a little of that about Carrie for me. As he went through each reason as to why he is coming to East Lansing, it was very apparent that he is extremely driven and works hard.
Carrie mentions in the video that he has a clothing/apparel brand called “Swift6ix” and also strives to produce content for his social media and that brand. Showing these off-the-field interests and how driven he is to make them succeed shows the exact type of player Mel Tucker and staff aims for. Someone who does not only want to pick a school for football reasons. Having a staff that aspires to help recruits build their brand will resonate hugely with new recruits.
Moving forward, I’d like to see Mel and his staff use similar tactics with other recruits. I’ve talked about in past articles how the “family appeal” from MSU’s staff resonates with parents and players alike. That is critical to land some big-name targets. Something that doesn’t get talked about enough to me is the level of comfort players feel with Mel and his coaches. Athletes feel like they can relate to our coaches and that is something not every school can offer.
The coaching staff at MSU does an amazing job of making players feel welcome and part of a family. Making players comfortable enough to be themselves seems like a simple task but that isn’t always the case. Players often cite not being the right fit as one of the main reasons for transferring.
In the video, Anthony mentioned having to not hide who he is and being extremely comfortable with Mel and the staff. He also discusses the benefits of having a number of African American coaches that will allow him to have multiple people in the building that can relate to him and serve as great role models. Having a coaching staff that not only is highly-regarded on the field, but that can serve as highly respected role models for students off the field is not something every program can boast.
Carrie really loves the opportunities MSU offers educationally as well. We often see MSU listed as a party school or not on the tier of Michigan in terms of academics. While some of that may be true, MSU is widely considered among the top academic public universities in the country. The recruiting staff often does a good job of trying to set potential athletes up with professors or people of interest within the player’s desired academic field. Most schools do this, but if MSU continues to showcase to its players what benefits MSU graduates have later in life, it can only aid in recruiting.
The final thing that really struck me from Anthony’s video and other recruits of late is the resources that are being dedicated to players once they leave MSU. The phrase “Spartan Dawg For Life” is said a lot in the Tucker era. This is something the school is striving for and really means it when it comes to athletics. Once players become Spartan Dawgs, they really join a fraternity that will support each other no matter what.
Since former player Darien Harris has joined the football staff as the Director of Player Relations and Program Advancement, he has set up MSU in an amazing spot to help players translate to the workforce post athletics. Harris often has former players, business executives, and networking experts speak to the players and work with them on smoothly entering the workforce. This is a big thing for players. Especially having so many examples of successful former Spartans to speak on their experiences. Players like Mat Ishbia, Jayson Strayhorn, Keith Nichol, and Otis Wiley have all been a part of presentations to the current players about their respective fields.
When recruits see how many former athletes succeed in the athletic world and post-athletics, it really sets up a future if they attend MSU. Having a recruiting staff and coaching staff that really wants to see you win off the gridiron even more than on it is what sets MSU apart. Tapping into that will be a big reason MSU will be a force on the recruiting trail in the future. Look for this to resonate with the remaining targets for the 2024 class and beyond.
Shout out to Tucker, the rest of his coaching staff, the recruiting staff, and Darien Harris. They do such an amazing job and are some of the absolute best at what they do.
Big things are happening in East Lansing and I am excited to see the results. Go Green.
Deion Sanders and Colorado are pursuing the top Michigan State football commit in the 2024 class. Not great.
We knew the Mel Tucker firing would begin a domino effect of other schools coming after Michigan State football players. It appears it has already started.
College football is the wild wild west. Now that the future of the Michigan State football program is cloudy, other programs are circling and looking for players to pull away. This includes current players on the roster who will soon have a 30-day transfer window open to them, as well as future commits.
This is an unfortunate reality of the nature of the game. This should have been expected and will continue throughout this upcoming offseason. Until the Spartans have a new head coach, teams will consistently be calling.
One of the latest examples is four-star 2024 Michigan State commit Nick Marsh who recently shared on social media that he’s been extended an offer from Colorado and Deion Sanders.
Few schools in the nation currently carry as much hype and excitement as Colorado. Marsh has already committed to the Spartans, decommitted, and then re-committed again. Potentially losing a player of his caliber again would be a huge blow to Michigan State. Spartan fans will be hoping the program finds stability in the near future to keep Marsh and the rest of the 2024 class intact.
While it’s a near certainty that the program will lose players from both the current roster and future classes, the players certainly aren’t to blame. The nature of college football is that more often than not, players are committing to a coach more than a program. Tucker convinced young men to buy into his vision for the program and the future they could have with him. With all of that changing, it’s certainly understandable why many of these players may be considering a change of scene.
Marsh seems to have a strong relationship with Michigan State wide receiver coach Courtney Hawkins. The hope will be that Hawkins is able to keep Marsh connected to the program throughout this current season.
One of the top Michigan State football commits in the 2024 class shot up the recruiting rankings this past week.
For the last week, Michigan State football saw nothing but bad news. So how about some good news for a change? Michigan State commit Reggie Powers just skyrocketed up the recruiting rankings and now is the No. 210 player in the country, according to On3.
Powers is a 2024 safety who committed to Michigan State this past summer on June 14. He was a pretty unknown name to the recruiting world then, but that appears to be changing.
Reggie is a 6-foot-0, 195-pound safety from Dayton, Ohio. He is coming off a great junior season last year that saw him accumulate 80 tackles (8 tackles for loss), 10 pass break ups and 2.0 sacks. On top of that, he also had four forced fumbles which is a huge number for a safety. Powers was previously unranked before this update, but now he is a solid four-star recruit and No. 210 in the country.
What this means for Michigan State
It is no secret that we need help on defense, specifically in the secondary. Since Mel Tucker was hired four years ago, our secondary has arguably been our worst positional group. Having extremely talented recruits at this position is a great sign for our future.
Michigan State’s 2024 recruiting class is still pretty small. We currently have 13 commits and have the 49th ranked class in the country. This poor ranking is not up to our standards by any means, but some of that is due to having such a small number of recruits currently committed. Michigan State will likely rise in the team rankings as more kids commit to the program.
Will Michigan State be able to hold on to Powers commitment?
This question can be asked for every current Michigan State commit. With the recent news regarding Mel Tucker and the poor on field play against Washington, there are serious questions surrounding the state of our program. No recruit has come out and said much in the last week about the state of our program. However, it would be silly to expect them not to be debating their options at this point.
Any four-star player is always a huge get, but when it’s at a positional need like in the secondary it is that much more important. We are only three months until signing day, so let’s hope we can hold on to him.
The mother of Nick Marsh has not taken kindly to a headline by the Detroit Free Press that was used without permission.
In a sensitive time when recruits and current players are undoubtedly hoping to avoid questions about the Mel Tucker situation, it seems like the Detroit Free Press isn’t respecting the wishes of said recruits.
According to the mother of Nick Marsh, her son was approached with questions about the situation and he replied with “no comment” and the Detroit Free Press went on to use a misleading headline without permission.
She went off on the paper on Twitter.
So you a child says No comment and proceed to make a headline. You don’t consult the parent after you say it’s a story about Nick personal journey as a football player. You all should be ashamed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Use my child for a sensationalized headline!!!!! https://t.co/grQIRcS1TM
There’s nothing that a recruit could say right now that could be emotionally fair given the situation. Asking them about the head coach that recruited them likely getting suspended and likely fired for a nasty incident is going to yield a mixed bag of responses. But if a player says no comment or visibly doesn’t want to speak about the matter, you respect that.
Clearly that didn’t happen in this case.
From the looks of it, the Freep may have burned bridges with one of the state’s best recruits. Not exactly good for business.
Marsh’s mom is right, though, you don’t publish a headline like that or use quotes when a player doesn’t want to comment. It should be common sense that any commit or recruit is waiting to see how Michigan State handles this situation before making a final decision.
According to multiple people, Nick and his mom @MamaTron210 told Mick McCabe no comment on a phone call. Then when approached at practice, @CoachRusss told reporters that Nick was not going to talk about the current situation. https://t.co/J28ccX3D1f
Plus, this just isn’t the distraction needed for Nick Marsh during his senior season and with so much stress already added to his plate with the whole Tucker situation. Now he has to answer to people who believe his quote means that he’s leaving.
This comes just one day after Marsh’s mom expressed gratitude for Spartan moms who are helping to keep things intact during this mess.
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