Comp's Recruiting Briefing: 5/18/18

In the back half of the May evaluation period, Michigan State has been busy working the recruiting trails outside of its five-hour radius. But the Spartans have also been tending to matters closer to home.

The recruitment of Springfield, Ohio defensive tackle Isaiah Gibson and Detroit King defensive back Marvin Grant.

Michigan State extended an offer to Gibson last week. He is ranked the No. 31 player in Ohio with offers from Michigan State, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Purdue, Rutgers, Minnesota, Maryland, Louisville, Kentucky, Iowa State, Indiana, Georgia Tech and others.

Grant is ranked No. 5 in Michigan by Rivals.com and two weeks ago earned an invitation to the national Rivals Five-Star Challenge.

Michigan State has been meticulous in its evaluation of Grant, and ramped up its interest in the 6-foot-2, 200-pound athlete in recent days. Grant will be a senior at Detroit King next fall.

Michigan State linebackers coach Mike Tressel visited Detroit King High School earlier this week. Michigan State is also strongly interested in many Detroit King rising juniors (class of 2020), including wide receiver Rashawn Williams and Lemuel Neely-Watley, each of whom have offers from Michigan State. Michigan State is also interested in 2020 Detroit King running back Peny Boone. Tennessee offered Boone today.

As for Grant, he confirmed with SpartanMag that Michigan State has increased its talks with him. It remains to be seen whether the Spartans can turn that into traction. But an offer will have to come before he begins to seriously consider Michigan State. Members of the Detroit King coaching staff have indicated that an Michigan State offer could be coming soon. Stay tuned.

If Michigan State offers a scholarship, will it be too late to gain his graces? Grant wasn’t available to answer that question, but Rivals.com’s Josh Helmholdt, who spoke at length with Grant at the Rivals Three Stripe Camp in Ohio two weeks ago, says Michigan State can become a player here

“No, not too late,” Helmholdt told SpartanMag.com. “They’d have a lot of work to do, but it’s not impossible.”

Grant told Helmholdt he planned to make a commitment elsewhere, and almost pulled the trigger the weekend of May 5-6. Then he decided against it.

“Now I just want to take my time because it’s my decision and I have to deal with it the rest of my life,” he said. “So I just felt that pushing it back was the right thing to do and bring my parents in to check out the schools that I’ve already been too. Now I want them to see the schools, too.”

Kentucky was regarded as the leader this spring, and is still probably the team to beat. Purdue, Iowa State, Indiana, Missouri, Pitt and Minnesota are also strongly-involved.

Michigan offered several weeks ago. Sources indicate that Michigan pushed for a commitment. He didn’t commit, and communications seem to have fallen off between the two.

He plans to take official visits to Purdue, Iowa State and Kentucky.

“The other two, I’m trying to figure out,” he said.

Michigan State could get into position to land one of those spots. There is time. Grant is planning to visit Purdue and Kentucky in the fall.

Kentucky has become a major player in recruiting Michigan and Ohio.

“They (Kentucky) are recruiting me really hard,” Grant said. “That shows how bad they really want me. It’s more than just football when I go there. It’s family, and teaching me to be a better man. It’s just a good feel when I go there.”

Michigan State and Wisconsin made what appears to be game-changing offers to Isaiah Gibson late last week.

Michigan State’s new defensive backs coach, Paul Haynes, ramped up MSU’s interest in Isaiah Gibson in late April.

“He (Haynes) came to my school and asked me if I’m still interested in them because they are interested in me,” Gibson said. “I told him they’ve got a chance just like everybody else does, still. I’m not making a decision until September, so I’ve got a little bit.”

Gibson took spring visits to Michigan State, Ohio State, West Virginia, Iowa State, Minnesota, Kentucky and Purdue.

Gibson has maintained a solid rapport with Michigan State defensive line coach Ron Burton.

“(Michigan State coaches) said they like my size, my get-off and said I was good at the point of attack,” Gibson said. “They invited me to camp but I’m not going to go to any camps. I did Rivals and Nike and that’s it.”

Michigan State followed those overtures with an offer on May 10.

Gibson’s reaction to the Michigan State offer?

“I was just happy and just couldn’t stop smiling,” Gibson said.

Wisconsin offered the same day.

Gibson announced this week he will take an official visit to Wisconsin, the weekend of June 1.

"I’ve always liked Wisconsin and they almost went to the playoffs last year, so it’s just a program that wins a lot,” Gibson told Rivals.com. “Wisconsin is definitely up there after the offer."

"No leaders right now," Gibson said. "I actually am going to rethink my top 10 because so many other schools are coming in right now. I can’t really say I have a top group right now with other schools like Wisconsin, Michigan State and Nebraska showing interest.

"I don’t think I'll take any more visits this summer. I’ve seen just about every school that has offered so far."

“Georgia Tech is a place I’d like to visit, it will probably be an official visit since it is kind of far. There are a lot of schools I’m interested in and I had my top ten, I put out my top 10 and then Georgia Tech offered and Western Carolina was my 20th offer overall, so it is fluid.”

Kentucky has been running strong with Gibson for awhile.

“Kentucky wants me to take an official, so I probably will,” Gibson said.

THE LATEST ON MICHAEL FLETCHER

Wisconsin will also play host to Michael Fletcher for an official visit, the weekend of June 1.

I view Michigan State as the big leader for Fletcher. He visited Michigan State on May 7 with his brother and grandmother, and sources tell me that the visit went extremely well.

Fletcher has visited Michigan State many times. This was the first time Fletcher’s grandmother accompanied him on a visit. That was meaningful to Fletcher, as his grandmother played an important role in his upbringing.

Aside from his grandmother being there, was his most recent visit to Michigan State different than past visits?

“Yeah, I learned more about the academics and their help area,” Fletcher said.

Wisconsin has a lot of ground to make up, but comebacks are always possible when an official visit takes place.

BRIEFLY ...

* While Michigan State waits for word on Fletcher, another top defensive end in the Midwest is planning to visit Michigan State on Monday. Beau Robbins (6-5, 240 of Carmel, Ind.) is planning to tour campus after the weekend.

He is ranked the No. 5 player in Indiana, and is listed as a four-star recruit. He visited Iowa in April.

He has offers from Michigan State, Iowa, Arkansas, Minnesota, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Nebraska and Indiana.

* Linebacker Luke Fulton of Youngstown Cardinal Mooney has been keeping things quiet. Michigan State has been running strong with the 6-foot-3, rangy, athletic pursuit linebacker, and strengthened its position with him during a good unofficial visit on April 4. You might remember the photos of him holding a sword in Mark Dantonio’s office during that visit. No one was injured.

Fulton is ranked the No. 21 player in Ohio by Rivals.com.

Fulton has also visited Notre Dame, Iowa, Nebraska, Penn State, West Virginia and Pitt. Notre Dame has yet to offer. Kentucky is also in the picture.

* In the offensive line category, Damon Kaylor is visiting Cincinnati today (May 18).

“Then I will visit Michigan State some time in the next couple of weeks,” Kaylor told me.

Kaylor is a 6-foot-6, 310-pound offensive line prospect from Huntington (Ind.) North. He is 5.6 three-star recruit on the Rivals.com scale.

Kaylor has offers from Michigan State, Boston College, Virginia and MAC schools.

Michigan State has been known to be frugal with scholarship offers. The Spartans don’t seem to give many ceremonial or designer offers. They don’t give non-committable offers.

Yet the Spartans made a strong gesture to Kaylor with the scholarship offer on May 10. Boston College offered four days later.

Michigan State offered after Spartan offensive line coach Mark Staten scouted him on May 10. Coaches are allowed one off-campus opportunity to evaluate a player’s athleticism from April 15 to May 31. They are allowed one additional visit for academic review.

Among other things, Staten watched Kaylor in the weight room.

“I felt that if he got the chance to see how well I could move, he would be impressed,” Kaylor said. “So I wouldn’t say it was a surprise (that Michigan State offered), but I didn’t know when it was going to happen.”

Highlights of the workout?

“I did squat, power clean and some other lifts,” Kaylor said.

Staten had a sit-down meeting with Kaylor after the workout.

“We just talked about my workout that I had that day and after that he gave me the (scholarship offer) news,” Kaylor said. “The conversation with Coach Staten went great.”

* Michigan State still has an offer on the table for Mentor (Ohio) offensive guard prospect Nick Samac.

Samac also has offers from Boston College, Vanderbilt, Duke, Indiana and others. Michigan State offered on April 19. Duke offered on May 1. Vanderbilt offered on Monday.

Michigan State offered Samac via phone call with area recruiter and tight ends coach Jim Bollman, along with Mark Dantonio.

“I got on the phone with them and Coach Dantonio told me he likes the way I play and my athleticism.”

Communication has remained open since the offer.

“I get on the phone with Coach Bollman sometimes and I text back and forth with Coach Staten and Coach Dantonio as well.”