By Mark Pszonak
With action in the transfer portal slowing down, it is time to take a closer look at how each P4 school did during this cycle. Up now are the Michigan State Spartans
The skinny: Everything that could have gone wrong in East Lansing last season went wrong. As a result, Mel Tucker was fired during the season after a scandal, the team finished 4-8, and 55 players, including 42 who were on scholarship, entered the transfer portal. Jonathan Smith is now left to try and right the Spartans’ ship as quickly as possible. After an extremely busy and necessarily aggressive portal cycle, which included several of his Oregon State players following him to the Big Ten, the pieces are in place. But now the Spartans only have a couple of months to turn the new roster into a cohesive team.
Total # entries into portal: 55
Total # of scholarship players who entered portal: 42
Number of scholarship players who withdrew: 7
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Key losses: DL Simeon Barrow Jr. (Miami-Florida), OL Spencer Brown (Oklahoma), DL Derrick Harmon (Oregon), QB Sam Leavitt (Arizona State), DL Zion Young (Missouri), TE Maliq Carr (Houston), DL Bai Jobe (Kansas), DB Jaden Mangham (Michigan)
Key additions: QB Aidan Chiles (Oregon State), TE Jack Velling (Oregon State), OL Luke Newman (Holy Cross), OL Tanner Miller (Oregon State), DB Ed Woods (Arizona State), LB Wayne Matthews III (Old Dominion), DL D’Quan Douse (Georgia Tech), DL Quindarius Dunnigan (Middle Tennessee State)
Final thoughts: With so much roster turnover, it’s difficult to decide where to begin with a breakdown. Offensively, the Spartans look promising, especially after key players like QB Aidan Chiles, TE Jack Velling and OL Tanner Miller followed Coach Smith to East Lansing. Defensively, there are more concerns. Players like the DL duo of Quindarius Dunnigan and D’Quan Douse and DB Ed Woods should help, but there are plenty of moving parts that need to stabilize before the unit can work. Coach Smith and the staff did help the overall transition of the roster though by convincing several Spartans who entered the portal to return, most notably DE Khris Bogle, LB Darius Snow, OL Brandon Baldwin, OL Kristian Phillips and DB Charles Brantley. With this many roster changes, nobody really knows how the 2024 season will go for the Spartans.
