On Tuesday, Michigan State redshirt sophomore defensive end Ken Talley announced on his X (formerly Twitter) account his intention to leave the Spartans and enter the transfer portal.
He will have two years of college eligibility remaining.
The transfer portal official opens for non-graduate students on Monday, Dec. 9.
Across two seasons with MSU, Talley appeared in 15 total games, with 10 games played this year. He recorded 11 total tackles, three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks as a a Spartan.
He is the first MSU player to publicly announce their intention to enter the transfer portal this cycle.
This will be the second time Talley will have entered the portal. The former four-star recruit out of Philadelphia originally signed to Penn State’s 2022 class before leaving the Nittany Lions that August and joining the Spartans during the first month of the 2022 campaign under then head coach Mel Tucker.
Talley had a strong start to the 2024 season. He got pressure on quarterback Cam Fancher on a fourth-down play during Florida Atlantic’s last gasp at an upset to begin the year, and recorded a sack in MSU's win over Prairie View A&M.
But as the year went on, his snap count decreased a little bit. Talley ended his 2024 campaign with a total of 160 snaps played (152 defensive snaps and eight special teams snaps), with most of them in passing situations, and an overall defensive grade of 56.9 from Pro Football Focus.
There will be some production in the already limited pass rush that Michigan State will need to replace in 2025. Talley’s 1.5-sack year was good for a tie for fourth most on the team in that department. MSU’s top two producers in sacks, Khris Bogle and Jordan Turner, are both exiting the program after exhausting their eligibility as well.
At one point, the Spartans went six consecutive games without a sack and finished tied for 103rd nationally with just 19 total sacks on the year.
Look for head coach Jonathan Smith, defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Joe Rossi and the rest of the Michigan State staff to be active in the portal to help bolster the pass rush and to improve the roster at many positions.