The virtual world of laptops and cell phones has become the new battlefield of college football recruiting, and Mel Tucker of Michigan State is excelling.
Michigan State entered April with zero commitments, but exited the month with 10. Tucker has embraced cyber recruiting as part of his staff’s aggressive approach to find the next generation of Spartans. It's been a necessity.
The last bell to toll in April for the Spartans was the loudest, on Thursday, when defensive back Charles Brantley of Venice, Fla., committed to the Spartans over Florida State and others. He is the first Rivals.com four-star commitment for Michigan State's 2021 class.
Four of the last five Michigan State commitments have never been to East Lansing or met Tucker face-to-face.
With kids who have grown up in a world of virtual communication via texting, Twitter and Instagram, getting to know a coach through a computer screen isn’t as big of a leap as it might seem to those of a different generation.
The willingness of high school juniors to make early verbal commitments hasn’t tapered off, despite the fact that recruiting prospects weren't able to make college visits for spring practice and spring games in March and April. College coaches won't be able to hit the road for their usual May evaluation trips, but the recruiting race won’t slow down.
With Tucker having become MSU’s new head coach on Feb. 12, he and most of his staff were at a severe disadvantage this spring in terms of cultivating recruiting relationships. They had little more than a one-week window of on-campus visits in early March before the COVID-19 shutdown took place.
Ohio State had 15 verbal commitments before Tucker had a chance to finalize his support staff.
The prospect of making up for lost time without spring visits, May evaluation trips and June camps seemed dire. But Tucker and his staff rallied in April.
The flurry began with in-state darkhorse recruits Davion Primm, a running back from Oak Park, and Ethan Boyd, an offensive lineman from East Lansing.
Then came an eyebrow-raising commitment from 6-foot-4 cornerback Gabe Nealy of Miami, an uncommon talent who I think would be a four-star prospect if he played in the state of Michigan with a chance to stand out in a shallow talent pool.
The spark of momentum carried over to a key commitment from Tyson Watson, a defensive end from Warren, Mich., who said he wasn’t highly interested in Michigan State until Tucker came aboard.
Then, Michigan State gained five straight commitments from players who live outside of the traditional six-hour recruiting radius - getting defensive back Antoine Booth of Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha; quarterback Hampton Fay of Fort Worth, Texas; offensive lineman Kevin Wigenton of The Hun School in Princeton, N.J.; and tight end Kameron Allen of Forney, Texas.
They’re not all super-standout prospects. Some are projects. But the fact that they were willing to make a commitment to Michigan State under the current conditions speaks to Tucker’s pragmatism and probably his magnetism.
Fay is a standout. Tucker and his staff recruited him at Colorado. Fay and his parents took a spring break visit to East Lansing in March, just before the shutdown.
Of the last five commitments, only Fay has been to MSU's campus. Tucker hasn’t accepted the idea that his late hiring should be a handicap on the recruiting trail.
“I think they’re doing a great job recruiting right now,” said Herb Haygood, a former Spartan All-American and the second cousin of MSU’s latest commitment, Charles Brantley. “One of the reasons Chuck committed is they have stayed on those guys. They identify who they want, and that (Michigan State) staff right now is attacking those guys.”
FINE-TUNING THE VIRTUAL PITCH
Haygood and Brantley’s father, Arthur Brantley, are cousins, but they grew up close like brothers. Brantley’s father even stayed with Haygood for a little while in East Lansing, when Haygood as a player at Michigan State in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
When Charles was born, the family was so tight that Charles viewed Haygood as an uncle, not a second cousin.
“So we just went with ‘Unc,’ that’s what he calls me,” Haygood said. “Today alone, I probably talked to him six or seven times. He was excited to make that commitment.”
The onset of the COVID-19 shutdown led to “virtual visits” replacing unofficial visits in the spring months. On a virtual visit, recruits watch on a computer screen while coaches and football staffers guide the player and his parents with images and information of what it's like at Michigan State University as a player and a student.
Tucker’s direct, personable communication style comes across well on a computer screen, as Michigan State fans maybe have noticed during Tucker’s instagram chat with fans on Wednesday night.
Tucker created new positions on his support staff for aides who oversee things such as graphic design, creative design and social media push.
Tucker is outfitted in his home office with a light ring for his iPhone, and all the proper audio hook-ups.
The COVID-19 shutdown might have thrown an obstacle at Tucker’s attempts to catch up on the recruiting trail, but his branding in the virtual world is helping him and the Spartans hurdle it.
“We have to be very creative,” Tucker said during a Friday appearance on The Spartan Beat live podcast, hosted by SpartanMag contributor Rico Beard. “We have virtual meetings and virtual tours with prospects. The delivery of the information to the prospects and their parents is critical.”
Tucker’s virtual visit with Brantley on Tuesday sealed the deal.
“It lasted two hours,” said Haygood, a former assistant coach at Eastern Michigan who is now defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for the startup NAIA football program at Madonna College in Livonia, Mich. “I wasn’t in on it but I saw the itinerary. It was extensive.”
There were presentations from position coaches, coordinators, academic support staff, the strength coach, MSU’s on-campus recruiting coordinator and of course Tucker batting last.
“Most important, his mom had to feel comfortable,” Haygood said. “After the virtual visit, once she felt comfortable with it, knowing that Chuck has family here, and the quick flight from Tampa to here is nothing, she was comfortable.”
Whatever Tucker and his staff are doing with their virtual visits, it’s working.
“Michigan State as a university and an athletic program has so many things to offer so we have to be very creative and very particular in how we convey our brand to our recruits,” Tucker said. “Electronically, the length, the timing of the message and being specific is important. So we give them information that is useful and helpful in the decision-making process and not inundate people with too much information. That’s a very fine line. So we work hard at that each and every day.”
They have to, because the competition isn’t resting. Iowa has 14 commitments and its class is ranked No. 6 in the country - the best early start for a Hawkeye recruiting class in program history.
Six other Big Ten schools are ranked in the Top 20 of the early recruiting rankings for 2001: No. 7 Michigan (11 commitments); No. 8. Minnesota (14); No. 13. Penn State (10); No. 15. Wisconsin (10); No. 17. Maryland (11); and No. 18. Rutgers (11).
Michigan State is ranked No. 21 in the current Rivals.com recruiting rankings, and climbing.
“We have a process and we work it every single day,” Tucker said. “We stick to it in terms of identifying players, evaluating the players, ranking the players to get the offers out and then how we market to those prospects, their parents and their high school coaches.
“We recruit nationally. Our reach is far. But most importantly we want to do a great job in our state recruiting. We have to win at home first and that’s where it all starts. We have made very, very strong efforts to build relationships within our state, with our prospects and the high school coaches to let them know that we’re here to serve the state of Michigan and whatever we can do to help these young men, we’re willing to do that.”
THE NEW NORMAL FOR MSU RECRUITING
Watson is MSU’s highest-ranked in-state commitment at No. 12 in Michigan.
The state’s top-ranked player, defensive tackle Damon Payne of Belleville, has been viewed a lean toward power programs such as Alabama, LSU and Ohio State. Michigan State wasn’t in the picture when Tucker was hired. But Michigan State is working relentless, as Tucker would say, to get in with Payne, and the work is showing some traction.
Michigan State had no shot to get West Bloomfield running back Donovan Edwards, the state’s No. 4-ranked player, before the coaching change. But Tucker and his staff were able to get Edwards on campus for an unofficial visit for the Ohio State basketball game in early March. Michigan State isn’t the favorite for Edwards, but the campaign continues.
“One of the things they are doing is just because a guy gets an Ohio State offer doesn’t mean anything to those guys coaching at Michigan State right now,” Haygood said. “They’re coming just as hard. If they got an offer from Notre Dame, or Florida State with Chuck Brantley, or Florida, they’re going to make the kid say no. They’re going to make the kid say, ‘No, I don’t want to go to Michigan State’ rather than backing down and not recruiting those top players. They’re going after the top players, no matter where they are.”
Tucker’s approach, and even some of his phrases, come straight out of the Nick Saban playbook - with a spicy dash of Coach Tuckisms and old Spartan stand-bys.
“First and foremost we want players that have tremendously high character, that are unselfish team players,” Tucker said. “We want players that love the game of football and appreciate what the game of football can do for them, what it has done for them and what it’s done for all of us.
“We want players that are tough, we want players that are physical. We want players that are relentless and we want players that have something to prove - players that don’t have any sense of entitlement, players that want to work to earn everything that they get with a chip on our shoulder each and every day. Those are the type of players that we need here. Those are the players that we are targeting and recruiting because those are the type of players that can help us build upon the winning culture of excellence we need here at Michigan State.”
Tucker’s approach is a sharp contrast to the way Dantonio operated. Dantonio had a great run of success at Michigan State despite, or perhaps because of, his cautious approach to recruiting. Dantonio often resisted early commitments, and encouraged prospects to think about their decision longer before giving a verbal pledge.
I can say confidently that Dantonio never would have accepted a commitment from a player without having met with them face-to-face. Dantonio would have held out on accepting a commitment until the player had a chance to see campus.
I’m not saying Dantonio’s approach was better. I’m not saying Tucker’s is flawed. It’s just different. As different as Tucker’s outlook on social media compared to his new neighbor, Tom Izzo.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with Coach Izzo,” Tucker said with a laugh, on Beard’s Spartan Beat podcast. “He’s a great friend of mine and I love him to death. One thing we have not talked about is social media. I think Coach Izzo’s got it figured out; he knows what he has to do to win.”
Either way can work. Izzo’s distaste for Twitter, or Tucker’s embrace of all things social.
Dantonio’s cautious recruiting approach certainly worked for a long time. It will be intriguing and entertaining to watch Tucker’s path play out.
“We’re all on social media,” Tucker said of his assistant coaches. “I just think it’s a great way to connect, especially now when we’re so physically disconnected.
“The social media with Twitter, Instagram, I even dusted my FaceBook off. It’s just a great way for us to interact and connect. I think it’s a lot of fun and I think it’s very important.”
Divergent philosophies aside, one thing is certain: Having a proactive, modern outlook on the current, virtual landscape of college football recruiting is the only way to fly in the spring of 2020.
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