Wednesday marked the opening of the early signing period for the class of 2024, and Michigan State head football coach Jonathan Smith was available to discuss the incoming Spartans.
At the time that Smith's press conference started, 16 of Michigan State's 19 commits were officially signed: defensive end Kekai Burnett, wide receivers Nick Marsh and Austin Clay, quarterbacks Ryland Jessee and Alessio Milivojevic, running backs Makhi Frazier and Brandon Tullis, tight end Wyatt Hook, defensive backs Andrew Brinson, Jaylen Thompson and Keshawn Williams, and offensive linemen Mercer Luniewski, Charlton Luniewski, Payton Stewart, Rustin Young and Rakeem Johnson.
These were the players whom Smith was permitted to talk about.
Meanwhile, defensive back/athlete Justin Denson Jr. and linebacker Brady Pretzlaff signed later in the day, while linebacker Jadyn Walker currently remains committed to Michigan State, but is pushing his signing decision back to February.
Of those players, Jessee, Milivojevic, Charlton Luniewski, Mercer Luniewski, Marsh, Thompson and Tullis have been identified as early enrollees and will move to East Lansing in January. Denson also has plans to enroll early.
Michigan State is also expected to bring in transfers Aidan Chiles (quarterback, Oregon State), Jack Velling (tight end, Oregon State), TJ Sheffield (wide receiver, Purdue), Jordan Turner (linebacker, Wisconsin) and Quindarius Dunnigan (defensive end, Middle Tennessee State).
Meanwhile, the Spartans are bringing in preferred walk-on linebacker Carter Enyard as well.
MSU is also expected to add more players to its 2024 roster through high school recruiting, the transfer portal and preferred walk-ons. Smith made it clear that the staff will continue to build the team moving forward.
Smith praised his staff for putting in a tremendous amount of work in just a three-week time period since they've come to MSU.
"Always an exciting day, signing day," Smith said. "First one here at Michigan State. A lot of work went into it. I want to thank, really, the staff, the recruiting staff. Over these three weeks, things have been moving fast. (I'm) really impressed with the coordination and really the work ethic. Long hours, all of that. So I can't thank the staff enough."
Smith is very pleased with the class Michigan State has coming in.
"I'm really excited about the group that we've, currently (as of) today (at) two o'clock, got signed up," Smith said. "Then, looking forward to continue to build this roster over the next few months and then all the way into the summer. But this is a great, great start."
Smith went into detail about the whirlwind three weeks it has been for him and the coaching staff. After Smith was hired on Nov. 25, and brought six assistant coaches with him from Oregon State, they went right to work on both getting to know the current roster and on the recruiting trail.
"I kind of wanted to talk about a little bit how we got here, Smith said. "Three weeks ago, arrived, excited to meet the team at my first team meeting on that Monday. And then dove into the current roster, trying to grow some relationship there, learn what we have on the roster — positionally, age-wise, things of that nature. And that mindset really hadn't changed over the last three weeks.
"First day, I was able to get out on the road with coaches and travel to the greater area of Detroit. A bunch of good-looking players, enjoyed meeting high school coaches around that city. Nick Marsh on day one, able to see him, meet (his) mom. That's how we attacked the first day that Friday out. And then really, the next week, it still was back to the current roster. Spent a lot of the mornings meeting individually with our current rostered players, learning, getting to know them. And then traveled late afternoon and evenings to home visits throughout that first week."
In the midst of all of this, Smith also needed to hire a defensive coordinator. Eventually, he hired Joe Rossi as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Rossi previously held the same title at Minnesota.
Getting Rossi in place was crucial for Smith and Michigan State.
"All at the same time (as recruiting and getting acclimated to the team), trying to hire a defensive coordinator," Smith said. "Brought six coaches over here with me that I've got deep trust and knowledge of. But a huge piece of this was the defensive coordinator. A lot of phone calls, talking to a lot of people interested in the job, (but) continued to circle back to Joe Rossi. (I) couldn't be more excited about having him in the middle of this process, over three weeks, and then he dove right into it on the recruiting side, helping us get to the finish line.”
Official visit weekends over the past two weeks were huge for Smith and his staff to secure current commitments, those who were previously committed to Oregon State and have since followed the staff to Michigan State, and prospects who were committed elsewhere as well.
There are still other two vacancies for the on-field staff, which Smith said he will take his time with and make sure he is hiring the right people for the jobs.
"Kind of fluid on those last two spots," Smith said about the coaching vacancies. "Kind of just thinking through again, getting Coach Rossi over here in regards to some of his vision to finalize the defensive side. Obviously, (we've) got to answer the special teams side as well. So, we'll kind of see. I was not going to rush on those decisions. I wanted to make sure, again, the particular person ... fit on both sides. And then the current set up of finalizing defense and answering for special teams, we're sorting that out."
He was asked if Harlon Barnett, who most recently served as Michigan State's interim head coach, would have a role on the staff. Smith was noncommittal about Barnett's status, but praised the job he has done to help the new staff.
"On Harlon's end, he's been helpful," Smith said about Barnett. "Met with him now a couple of times — just given the landscape, his approach. (It’s) yet to be determined on Harlon. He's got opportunities, other options and things, so we'll see where that lands."
Smith did retain one coach from the previous regime already in wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins. Smith had plenty of positive things to say about Hawkins.
"Enjoyed getting to know him," Smith said about Hawkins. "(He's) deeply passionate about this place. (He's) got a track record of playing this game at the highest level, developing talent. Loved the idea that he spent some time in the high school ranks, and what he did for that school and that community, learning that story was fun and impressive to hear. So, I'm really excited he's on board."
Getting the recruits and their families on campus to show them the facilities, build closer connections and explain the vision for the future of the program was the final piece of the puzzle to allow the Spartans to bring in a strong class in such a short period of time.
"Had huge weekends, really only had two total, that we put together," Smith explained. "The last one, I think we had close to 20 guys come through on a three-day span that last weekend. That's going back to, again, thanking the staff and their approach going through this."
Generally, Smith discussed the recruiting class coming in, and reiterated that Michigan State is not done yet.
"On this signing class, we are excited," Smith mentioned. "It's heavy on the high school side, which is gonna be an emphasis for us. Starting, really up front, the offensive line is well represented in this crew. Important to get a couple of quarterbacks. (We) feel awesome about Alessio (Milivojevic) and Ryland (Jessee) coming on board. (We) continue to build in the secondary side.
"And we're not done. I mean, this thing, this landscape now, college football, you can add to your roster 365 days a year. We're in the midst of the (transfer) portal being opened, and so there's opportunities there as well. Visits early in January, got a second signing day in February that we're gonna attack, same time, the portal will open again end of April. I feel confident we'll continue to add to the roster throughout the year.
"But back to this day, first day starting, signing day, I feel awesome about this group of young men we're bringing in."
Michigan State lost all three of its scholarship quarterbacks from 2023 — Noah Kim, Katin Houser and Sam Leavitt — to the transfer portal this offseason. That left Smith and his staff will many spots to fill in the quarterbacks room.
As mentioned, the Spartans are bringing in three new quarterbacks in Chiles, Milivojevic and Jessee. Chiles, who played under Smith and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Brian Lindgren at Oregon State in 2023, is projected to be the starter for MSU in 2024, but Smith noted that there will be opportunities for everybody to carve out their roles.
"We had, at one point in time, no one on scholarship in that room, and so I almost wanted to flip that perspective as actually a great opportunity to recruit," Smith explained. "You're trying to draw quarterbacks to that position, and when there's no one currently in the room, that's attractive to players.
"Obviously, yes, we are going to be adding through the transfer portal, and a lot of that becomes public and things. And so, that's a key piece, that position. Really excited about the two guys that we're adding with Alessio (Milivojevic) and Ryland (Jessee)."
Smith noted that the staff has known Jessee "longer" because they also recruited him while at Oregon State. He also mentioned that Lindgren was able to get out to visit Milivojevic at home in Illinois, and they quickly built a bond. Both quarterbacks visited East Lansing this past weekend.
As mentioned, Smith confirmed that both Milivojevic and Jessee will enroll in January.
Smith and his staff were able to keep seven of Michigan State's previous commits in the class, and also signed eight prospects who were previously committed to the staff at Oregon State. He discussed what it was like to blend those groups together to create the majority of the 2024 class.
"I think we blended it really well," Smith said about mixing prior Michigan State commits with former Oregon State commits. "Yes, there were current guys that were committed to the place before we arrived. We tried to dive into those guys. Again, communicate the vision, obviously evaluate, make sure the fit is right on both sides, which it really was with these guys that can play.
"At the same time, we had some deep rooted relationships with previous players that were committed elsewhere. I think a lot of this in recruiting is about the relationship. They had felt good. Got them out here on campus to make sure they (saw) the environment, and landed in a good place with those guys."
As it relates to name, image and likeness (NIL) at Michigan State, Smith said the "resources" and "opportunities" are "really good." Obviously, NIL is extremely important in today's landscape for both recruiting and for the current roster. He feels confident in that aspect.
Additionally, Smith mentioned that Michigan State will be putting an emphasis on recruiting the state of Ohio, just like it will in Michigan.
Clay, the aforementioned wide receiver signee, is coming out of Berea–Midpark High School in Berea, Ohio. The Luniewski twins, who pledged under the previous coaching staff, are also Ohio residents, hailing from Cincinnati.
Smith also had plenty of praise for fellow wide receiver, Nick Marsh, a four-star prospect out of River Rouge, Michigan, and his family. Smith had good things to say about many of the recruits, which Spartans Illustrated will detail in a separate article to come.
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