As official visit season approaches for Michigan State, we’re about to see recruiting take center stage. Pat Fitzgerald will have a hectic next 1. 5 months as he begins his first recruiting cycle as Michigan State’s head coach after a multi-year absence from the sport.
It will be an adjustment for Fitzgerald, who must start over at a new school three years after Northwestern dismissed him. He has had to adapt to the NIL era, as well as the wild, wild, west that is the transfer gateway, and he has done a decent job so far. Although he isn’t receiving four and five-star prospects, he is attracting good people.
Furthermore, it cannot be too simple to recruit at a high level after being away from college football for three years and taking over a program five years away from its last bowl game—you’d take a top-40 class at this stage in the cycle under those conditions.
Fitzgerald is also learning the technique of the flip. He’s presented several prospects who are committed elsewhere, including three-star linebacker Caleb Green of Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
The No. 60 linebacker in the 2027 class has only been committed to the Missouri Tigers since April 26, but Fitzgerald is attempting to complete a switch in record time. He made the offer to Green on May 15, and has already planned an official visit.
According to Jason Killop of SpartanMag, Green will be on campus on June 5 for his official visit and is looking forward to learning more about the program and Max Bullough.
He will visit Missouri in two weeks.
Pat Fitzgerald is attempting to exert recruiting influence.
As I mentioned before, it cannot be easy to recruit at a program that has not reached a bowl game in five years under a head coach who has been absent from the sport for three years.
Yet, Fitzgerald looks to be flexing his power whenever possible.
The first-year head coach pulled off some signing day surprises in February, snatching Samson Gash away from Alabama, Penn State, and West Virginia, and now he’s attempting to flip an SEC commitment only weeks before hosting a massive official visit weekend highlighted by several four-star targets.
Michigan State now has the No. 39 recruiting class in the nation, but I anticipate that it will end up somewhere between 25 and 40 after everything is said and done.
