MSU Football recruiting

[Spartanmack]

The resort we were staying at this weekend was also hosting an RU football recruiting event - makes sense they would have it there instead of on campus since New Brunswick is pretty much a dump and their stadium isn't much bigger than some Texas high school stadiums (although it is a great place to see a game if you don't care at least one of the teams sucks).

Anyway, we had a great weekend in recruiting but it wasn't all good news. 2027 four star DB Kahlil Terry decommits from MSU. I think a lot of people were expecting this since CBs coach Demetrice Martin took the job at UCLA. Granted, he's a 2027 kid so there's time to recover but it sucks to lose an elite recruit at a position of need.

 

[Spartanmack]

Looks like Shaw announced his commitment to MSU this morning. Maybe we can flip a couple more of those legacies we missed.

This one is puzzling to me though. My colleague has only talked about Shaw as a QB, further pointed out his official stats say he recorded just 6 total tackles last year. Apparently the guy has a whole series of game film for Pascack Valley and saw 0 snaps of him on defense. When I look him up on maxpreps, all of his stats are as a QB.

Maybe they don't track comprehensive defensive stats at the high school level and they rely more on scouts but it seems odd that every recruiting site lists him as an LB (mostly OLB) when there isn't much data on him at that position. It could also be the case that as QB, they're trying to preserve him so maybe he's not a full time 2 way player in high school. But if that's the case, I wonder how he's getting so much attention as a linebacker.

 

[gotime909]

Looks like Shaw announced his commitment to MSU this morning. Maybe we can flip a couple more of those legacies we missed.

This one is puzzling to me though. My colleague has only talked about Shaw as a QB, further pointed out his official stats say he recorded just 6 total tackles last year. Apparently the guy has a whole series of game film for Pascack Valley and saw 0 snaps of him on defense. When I look him up on maxpreps, all of his stats are as a QB.

Maybe they don't track comprehensive defensive stats at the high school level and they rely more on scouts but it seems odd that every recruiting site lists him as an LB (mostly OLB) when there isn't much data on him at that position. It could also be the case that as QB, they're trying to preserve him so maybe he's not a full time 2 way player in high school. But if that's the case, I wonder how he's getting so much attention as a linebacker.

Scouts take more from camps than high school game film. He was camping as a linebacker and listed on all the recruiting sites as a linebacker. Clearly his future wasn't at qb. Most high schools, the best athlete plays qb. Im assuming that was likely the case with him.

 

[Spartanmack]

Scouts take more from camps than high school game film. He was camping as a linebacker and listed on all the recruiting sites as a linebacker. Clearly his future wasn't at qb. Most high schools, the best athlete plays qb. Im assuming that was likely the case with him.

makes sense and yeah, I saw literally everyone has him as a 3 star linebacker. My colleague's team played them in the playoffs last year and said it was his athleticism and power more than his arm - he was able to just do what he wanted pretty much.

Pascack is a group 3 school (biggest schools are in Group 5), which is really group 2 as the state is dominated by the Catholic and Prep schools that are in a separate "Non Public" group. The Catholic schools really are in a league of their own. There's only a couple G5 teams that can hang with the Don Boscoes and Bergen Catholics, etc. Group 3 is still pretty legit and produces some good talent.

 

[Spartanmack]

Rising 3 star WR Samson Gash commits to MSU. Apparently the Spartan staff held off a late push from Alabama and heavy interest from West Virginia to earn his commitment.

The class has really improved over the last 2 or 3 weeks climbing into the top 25 at the moment although that’s at least in part due to the large number of mostly 3 star commitments.

 

[Spartanmack]

Nice to get Samson but in the same day, we lost out on OL Khalief Canty Jr who chose Missouri over MSU. Not sure what the thought process is there or what was involved in terms of NIL but it seems like an odd choice - he's a Michigan kid, OL is a position of need and therefore an opportunity and I have to think he'd get more exposure at MSU than he will at an SEC team no one cares about.

 

[Spartanmack]

Former Spartan Sam Leavitt wins the preseason Big 12 Heisman. The Sundevils lost Skattebo but retained their top receiver. Other than that I don't know much about the rest of the team. Their last 2 recruiting classes ranked lower than ours if you can believe that and their portal classes the last 2 seasons have also been in the 50s.

Could Sam Leavitt be the next big "what if" for Spartan football?

 

[Spartanmack]

Adam Shaw '26 linebacker commit from NJ suffers broken tibula in season opener. He is out for the remainder of the season.

 

[Spartanmack]

Katin Houser leads ECU to easy victory in their conference season opener. I watched some of it flipping back-and-forth b/w that and the Seattle/Arizona game. Not much to glean from it as ECU scored 21 in the first quarter, had a punt and two turnovers (Houser threw a pick then fumbled) in the 2nd then seemed to back off in the second half.

I didn't see either turnover but both his TD passes were really nice - one was ~53yds in the air and on the money and the other was a nice touch pass to a TE in the post. He had a rushing TD as well.

 

[Spartanmack]

First, WR Tyren Wortham decommits and now LB Braylon Hoge is looking to be next. I saw an article over a week ago saying Hoge had as many as 4 official visits he planned to take. The update this week is he had some positive things to say after his official visit to uofm. He still has visits to Oregon, Missouri and Texas and apparently Utah is pursuing him aggressively as well.

He gone.

And here's another update on a former Spartan - Zion Young is in the top 10 in the country in QB pressures so far this year at Missouri.

 

[Spartanmack]

And…he gone. Braylon Hoge decommits from Michigan State.

 

[gotime909]

And…he gone. Braylon Hoge decommits from Michigan State.

Saw samson gash is taking an Alabama visit too. Hes likely next

Having a bad coach and qb isnt going to keep many of these recruits

 

[Spartanmack]

Saw samson gash is taking an Alabama visit too. Hes likely next

Having a bad coach and qb isnt going to keep many of these recruits

don't forget shitty o-line, defense and special teams.

 

[gotime909]

don't forget shitty o-line, defense and special teams.

2 of these 3 guys are wrs. They don't give a shit about those 3 things. It's qb and coach for them.

 

[Spartanmack]

2 of these 3 guys are wrs. They don't give a shit about those 3 things. It's qb and coach for them.

One of two so far is a linebacker. And it's two in the span of a week with plenty of time for more to decommit. This whole class is in play at this point.

Plus the idea that recruits only care about the coach and their position group is definitely not true. If you have the chance to play WR for one of two teams that score 35+ ppg, are you going to be indifferent to the one that gives up 25 or less and the one that gives up 40+? A guy whose choices are Bowling Green, Youngstown State, Western Michigan and MSU may not care so much about the defense, but we're not getting any more Nick Marsh's and the offense won't be the only reason we lose more of our top recruits.

 

[Spartanmack]

I don't know what this kid was thinking when he took an official visit to MSU after decommitting from wisconsin - that's like jumping from a burning building onto a sinking ship...

Anyway, 3 star wide receiver Tayshon Bardo cancels his official visit to MSU that was scheduled for the psu game.