For many who follow Michigan State football, these summer months can feel like a slog. Spring football is over, training camp has yet to begin, and the transfer portal is not open for business. However, for the coaching staff, these summer months (especially June) are some of the most important on the path to building a contending football team.
Recruiting is in full swing as high school targets are flooding campus as the staff makes their pitch for them to join the program.
Even in today's new recruiting world, head coach Jonathan Smith was never going to build a contender overnight. The formula that he has adopted that has found him success is through developing players and building classes primarily through the high school ranks. This strategy takes time, as successful high school recruiting requires relationships and rapport.
Smith's first class in 2024 was an accelerated endeavor that consisted of keeping the current MSU class intact while bringing in a large portion of Smith's class from Oregon State. His second class (2025) used a reserved approach as relationships with regional coaches grew and Smith understood where to pick his battles.
The 2026 class is Smith's first real measuring stick for high school recruiting now that he has been able to recruit athletes to MSU for multiple years. Heading into June, Michigan State only had four players in its class and caused many fans, fairly or not, to question his approach and ability to attract talent.
However, once the calendar flipped to June, Smith and his staff have made up for lost time, landing 13 commitments in 17 days. While on paper many of these athletes won't draw much attention individually, what has stood out is Smith and his staff's ability to lock down top targets shortly after they have have taken official visits to East Lansing.
For example, Michigan State hosted 10 official visits May 30 through June 1. One of those players, four-star tight end Eddie Whiting, was already committed to the Spartans. Of the other nine visitors, the Spartans have, as of today, landed seven more commitments — that's a hit rate from that weekend that currently stands at 80%. The Spartans are also still in the race for cornerback Jeremiah Favorite and three-star WR Elijah West from that weekend.
In addition to the players from that first weekend, Michigan State has also landed three-star defensive lineman Christopher Knauls, three-star offensive tackle Quinn Buckey, and three-star defensive back Eliyjah Caldwell-Hardy, all of whom have gone on official visits to Michigan State in April (Buckey) or June (Knauls and Caldwell-Hardy).
On Saturday, the Spartans continued their June success, earning the pledge of three-star cornerback TJ Umenyiora, who was on campus for a June 6 through June 8 official visit. On Sunday, Smith and staff were able to quietly get a visit and flipped the commitment of three-star defensive back Jordan Vann, who at the time was committed to Virginia. MSU was also able to beat hometown program Washington out for coveted three-star defensive end Fameitau Siale on Sunday (Siale was one of the aforementioned visitors from the May 30 through June 1 weekend who eventually committed to the Spartans).
On Monday, the Spartans gained two more commitments from three-star WR Zachary Washington (MSU's top WR target) and three-star OT Tristian Comer. The 2026 now stands at 17 players.
While there are currently only two four-stars in the 2026 in Whiting and quarterback Kayd Coffman, the staff's ability to land all these players shortly after having taking official visits is no easy feat. Since hosting OVs aren't cheap, Smith and his team are not inviting players for these visits unless they are top targets for the staff.
In total From May 30 to June 15, MSU has hosted 30 known official visits and currently holds commitments from 14 of those visitors, with signs pointing to more on the way. Of those 30 visitors thus far, 27 of whom were not previously committed to the Spartans. Hitting on nearly 52% of these OVs is an incredible mark and not something that should be overlooked when evaluating how Smith and his staff are doing.
The approach and success of summer official visits for Smith looks dramatically different than the approach of former head coach Mel Tucker. While Tucker was able to bring in countless blue-chip prospects, his ability to secure commitments from them was laughable, to put it kindly. The hype and excitement was there, due to photoshoots, goats, and sports cars, but this approach lacked intentionality and, more importantly, success.
For Smith and his staff, there is often limited buzz during the official visits weekends, as things are kept more quiet and the visitor list isn't full of top 250 recruits. However, Smith is landing these visitors at a very high rate and plenty of news is coming out following the weekends. As things currently stand with 15 commitments in the 2026 class, Michigan State currently holds the No. 21-ranked 2026 class according to Rivals. In addition to this, the Spartans have the 22nd highest average recruit ranking of teams that have at least 10 committed players.
Talent evaluation and scouting were major selling points on the hiring of Jonathan Smith. So while the current class isn't full of supremely touted recruits, the Michigan State staff is landing commitments of players who are very high on their board and in whom they have a great deal of confidence.
This approach to high school recruiting likely won't show immediate on-field results, but if Smith is able to continue this success in the coming classes — while peppering his roster with mature players from the transfer portal — he will be able to build the kind of sustainability that is required for a program like Michigan State to have continued success.
The last two weeks have been full of action in the construction of the 2026 class. The coming weeks will look to continue this momentum so that the coaching staff won't have to pivot to third (or even fourth) options, scrambling to put a full class together.
This approach will take patience from not only the fan base, but the coaching staff as well. But, if Smith and his staff are indeed the kind of evaluators they were sold on being, Michigan State fans will finally see some excitement on the direction of the program as a whole.
While it won't get the attention that the actual season gets — or even the transfer portal gets — these months are the ones that separate contenders from pretenders. Another important weekend just wrapped-up, as Smith and staff hosted another six uncommitted prospects between June 13-15, including Vann. Notably among this list is recent Rutgers decommit and Spartan legacy linebacker, Adam Shaw.
Overall, Michigan State's 2026 class currently includes four-star quarterback Kayd Coffman, four-star tight end Eddie Whiting, three-star defensive end Fameitau Siale three-star safety Jordan Vann, three-star cornerback TJ Umenyiora, three-star offensive tackle Collin Campbell, three-star offensive tackle Quinn Buckey, three-star offensive lineman Eli Bickel, three-star EDGE Cory House Jr., three-star defensive tackle Christopher Knauls Jr., three-star safety Eliyjah Caldwell-Hardy, three-star tight end Joey Caudill, three-star safety Brayden Thomas, three-star linebacker Braylon Hodge and three-star cornerback Kelsey Deriso.
There is expected to be more news soon.
To keep up to date with all the news and analysis from official visit season, follow Spartans Illustrated for daily updates and breaking news.
- QB
- TE
- EDGE
- DE
- WR
- OT
- OT
- CB
- LB
- DE
