MSU's offer to 2022 WR/DB Mangham packs some history

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Mel Tucker’s latest scholarship offer has some history to it.

When Tucker, via wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins, extended a scholarship offer to 2022 athlete Jaden Mangham on Tuesday, Michigan State fully entered the recruitment of the younger brother of a player whom Tucker left behind at Colorado.

Artie Mangham - the father of both players, Jaden and Jaren Mangham - understands the dynamics and is focused on the future.

Artie Mangham will have one son at Colorado next fall, Jaren Mangham - who rushed for 414 yards and three touchdowns as a true freshman for Tucker and the Buffaloes last fall. And Mangham’s youngest son, Jaden, is a highly-recruited junior wide receiver/defensive back at Birmingham Groves.

Michigan State became the 17th school to offer a scholarship to Jaden Mangham, joining Penn State, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Purdue, West Virginia and others.

Tucker’s decision to leave bothered Jaren Mangham, and he voiced it via Twitter. His father might have been disappointed, too, but understood the business decision.

“As far as I’m concerned, that page is turned and my main concern is what’s going to happen with my middle boy out at Colorado,” said Artie Mangham. “And as far as my young son who just got offered, it’s going to be all about building a relationship.”

Hawkins extended the offer to Jaden Mangham on Tuesday, after Hawkins reached out to Mangham’s coaches at Groves High School and requested a phone call from Jaden. Coaches aren’t allowed to call recruits directly during the current recruiting period, but college coaches can request contact through high school coaches.

“The conversation went great,” said Jaden Mangham. “He told me that he loved how I was playing and he wanted to extend the offer out to me. It was pretty exciting.

“He said he likes my size and my athleticism. He told me about the tradition at Michigan State.”

Artie Mangham was an all-conference linebacker at Bowling Green in 1991. He had an offer from Michigan’s Bo Schembechler while at Holly High School in northern Oakland County in the fall of 1987, but the offer evaporated when Mangham suffered a knee injury during his senior year.

“You can’t take any of these offers for granted so Jaden is just blessed to be in this position and will continue to work hard and make everything come to fruition for him,” said Mr. Mangham. “We’re excited about it.”

Mr. Mangham is familiar with Tucker, Michigan State offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic, running backs coach Will Peagler, offensive coordinator Jay Johnson and the rest of the Colorado staffers who came to East Lansing with Tucker.

Mangham also knows Mike Tressel and Harlon Barnett from MSU’s early recruitment of Jaren Mangham. Mangham has known Hawkins since the two played for the East team together in the 1988 Michigan High School Football Coaches Association All-Star Game at Spartan Stadium.

But he knows Tucker most of all.

“I knew when he took the job that he was going to come in energized and hit the ground running,” Mangham said. “I think he has built a tremendous staff. If you look at the short period of time he’s been there, he’s put together one of the better staffs out there in the country. The people that he’s surrounded himself with and how they said they would recruit on a daily basis and not be out-recruited, he’s been able to bring enthusiasm and excitement back to East Lansing. All of his coaches are out there on the trail every day recruiting. He got his first commitment in the ’21 class, a great running back out of Oak Park, Davion Primm. So he’s off and rolling.”

Mangham didn’t hold Tucker’s decision against him when he left Colorado, even though it meant his son would have to get acclimated to a new coaching staff in Boulder.

“At the end of the day, if anybody was to offer us double the money, double the resources, double the budget to do the exact same job, nine times out of 10 most people will jump at that,” Mangham said. “You’re talking about family security. Could it have been handled a better way under circumstances? That’s up to public opinion. The only ones that would know what went on behind closed doors would be Coach Tucker and Colorado and Michigan State and agents. You’ve got two sides of the coin.

“You’ve got Michigan State fans who are super excited about Coach Tucker coming to East Lansing and of course you’ve got Colorado fans that are a little upset and hurt and how the whole situation went down and how it was handled. You can see both sides of the fence but at the end of the day that man had to make the decision that was best for him and his family.”

Jaden Mangham originally committed to former Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre. But MacIntyre was fired during Jaden Mangham’s senior season at Detroit Cass Tech. Tucker was hired, and worked to retain Mangham as a Colorado commitment.

“When Mel Tucker came in here and recruited Jaren when he first got the job at Colorado, made the sell, sold him on the vision he was going to build there, my son committed there and he had great success as a freshman,” Mangham said. “So I can’t complain with what he was able to accomplish as a freshman. Everything that he had told my son when he was sitting here at my house pretty much came true when he went out there to Colorado.

“Everybody’s recruiting cycle is different. What happened with Jaren and how his recruitment went down is going to be completely different from how my youngest son Jaden’s recruitment is going to go.

“Now he (Tucker) is back at home, close proximity to home. We are familiar with his style and the coaching staff at Michigan State because the majority of them came from Colorado. We’re also very familiar with Coach Tressel and Coach Harlon Barnett. We’re familiar with all of them from when they recruited Jaren. So I’m good. I just have to make sure the women in my household understand that it’s a business and it’s nothing personal.”

Jaden Mangham is poised to receive many more scholarship offers. His older brother holds the unofficial record for most scholarship offers ever extended to a state of Michigan football recruit. Jaden is just scratching the surface of his potential.

“I think I did good (last fall as a sophomore),” he said. “I can definitely do better. There’s definitely room for improvement - defense and some speed stuff.”

Hawkins, Barnett and Tucker will be watching.