New Moon Rison

EAST LANSING - At some point in the latter stages of Saturday's Michigan State elite football camp, Hunter Rison decided it was time to become a Spartan.

He knew it. He felt it. Now he had to tell somebody.

He saw Mark Dantonio posing for post-camp pictures, and Darqueze Dennard playing catch with recruiting target Lavert Hill. Rison walked past them and down the western sideline at Spartan Stadium. He said out loud to anyone who might help: "Where's my pops? Have you seen my pops? Where's pops?"

Someone pointed toward the south end zone. Down there, Hunter's pops, Andre Rison, happened to be standing where he scored a portion of his 20 career touchdowns as a legendary Spartan wide receiver in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Hunter and Andre live together in Ann Arbor. Andre will be Hunter's coach for the first time this fall as offensive coordinator at Ann Arbor Skyline High School. And when the Risons went home on Saturday night following the MSU camp, their collective future was a little more defined because of what took place on Spartan Stadium's green grass, late Saturday afternoon.

"Pops," Hunter said when he caught up to his dad after Saturday's camp. "I'm about to commit. I'm ready to do it. Now."

Andre put his arm around his son, and they turned and headed back toward an unsuspecting Dantonio. Andre then stopped and sent Hunter off by himself toward his future head coach.

"They've got their own relationship," Andre said of Hunter and Dantonio. "They have their own little rapport. I sent him over there to tell coach by himself."

Upon hearing Hunter's commitment, Dantonio raised his eyebrows and smiled big. Dantonio gave his standard response: Are you sure?

And then came the standard acceptance: "Welcome to the family."

But in this case, Hunter Rison was already a member.

'Hell Yeah'

Hunter did most of his growing up in Arizona, but moved to Michigan last year to be with his father and hone his rapidly-developing football skills. He will be a junior on the Skyline football team this fall.

Hunter has visited East Lansing with his father a few times, but not yet for a fall football game.

"I brought Hunter up here to a fantasy camp two or three years ago," Andre said. "I worked the camp as a coach. His first experience on campus here was a little before that, when he was in the seventh grade.

"And then he went through a nice growth spurt after that. He went from 5-7 to 6-foot, to 6-1 and then he started filling out. And then all the sudden when he popped back up on campus, he was a whole different size."

Rison was arguably the top receiver at the Rivals Camp Series event in Cleveland in April, out-performing some of the top juniors and seniors in the Midwest.

Michigan State offered him a scholarship during the winter, after seeing his 2014 film.

Rison is a terrific talent, with strength, burst, excellent hands, very good top-end speed and the ability to corner through his routes like a sports car. His offer list primarily consists of Michigan State and Arizona State, but there were others. SpartanMag.com projects him to be a four-star recruit as a senior.

"Truthfully, it came down to Michigan State, Alabama and Baylor," Andre said.

Nick Saban became serious about Hunter, after seeing film this spring. Saban recruited Andre when Saban was an assistant at Michigan State in 1984. If any man could cut into Andre's heart-felt support of the Spartans, some thought it might be Saban. But those people were wrong. Andre was green all the way.

"Did I want my son to go to State? Hell yeah," Andre said. "But I wasn't going to force anything. I didn't know for sure if he would eventually choose Michigan State. He kind of scared me because he started hollering this Alabama sh-- the other day."

But then Hunter Rison visited East Lansing on Saturday, and he felt a calling.

"It just dawned upon me, today is the day," he said. "Something told me. Me personally, I knew it was time to do it, today."

He had no plans of making a commitment when he traveled to East Lansing this time. It just happened, spontaneously, but unquestionably.

"I just love this place," he said. "I don't know why. It's just something that I feel when I come here - I feel like I'm still home when I'm here.

"I won't be far from my dad. I'll still be close to my actual home. And it just hit me today like, 'I gotta do it.'"

What makes it feel like home?

"It's the people here," he said.

Like who?

"Like every coach," he said. "The players. They make you feel at home, like brothers. Coach Salem, Coach Dantonio, Coach Samuels - all those guys are just family.

"Coach Dantonio didn't know I was going to commit. He was about to leave, and I told him, 'This is really where I want to play. I've known it for a while, but this is ultimately where I want to play. I want this to be my school, where I get my education.'"

A short time later, Hunter Rison stood in the hallways of the Skandalaris Football Building, receiving congratulations from current stars such as Shilique Calhoun. He shook hands and accepted hugs while standing just a few feet from a photo of Andre catching a famous pass to help clinch the 1988 Rose Bowl win.

"It feels great now," Hunter said, "because now I know where I'm going to be playing and I'm just going to prepare to make plays in the green."

'Part of My Dream'

After Hunter made his commitment to Dantonio, the head coach looked across the field to Andre.

"Me and Coach D just looked at each other, smiling," Andre said. "I said, 'Congratulations.'

"He said, 'Thanks.'

"And we kept it moving."

Dantonio brought Andre and Hunter together for a photo. Former Spartan QB Drew Stanton was nearby. Dantonio pulled Stanton in for a photo with them.

Earlier, Dantonio asked Stanton to speak to the camp participants. Stanton is a current NFL player and one of the more popular Michigan State players in recent years. Stanton never played for Dantonio. He signed with Bobby Williams and finished his career under John L. Smith. But Dantonio has adopted Stanton as one of his own. They are part of this Spartan family that Andre Rison cherishes. It's a family that Andre has told Hunter about.

"One thing I can say is the Michigan State football program has a lot of great people in it," Andre said. "They have been kind to me. They've been kind to my family since I retired and have been around the program. I just wish the best, and wish the best for our program. Like I said, if you cut me, I'm green and white.

"My son has a great rapport with (wide receivers) Coach Samuels. I love what Coach Dantonio has done with the program as far as making it a national power. Being a realist about it, it makes it hard to say no to a great school that is not only great for football but also has great tradition of its alumni being extremely close. That, for me, was bigger and more important than anything, along with knowing what type of coach he was about to commit to and knowing what type of receiver coach that he was about to inherit. I couldn't be more pleased and more happy than I am today."

Standing there on the grass field at 92-year-old Spartan Stadium, Andre began to process the reality of what had just happened, and where it happened - on the field where he had given so much and gained so much. Andre pondered the next chapters of his Spartan experience, with his son now a part of it.

"I've always envisioned myself being around this program after I retired anyway," Andre said. "It was just part of my dream. And part of my dream was to coach. That's what I'm doing now - high school coaching, and living out a dream, really, still.

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"I was able to play and have a career, and the game of football has been so good to me as far as life lessons learned. I had my good days, my bad days and I thank the Lord that I managed to fall in between and land on my feet.

"And then for my son to commit today, and commit at a time when this program is at arguably the highest level it has ever been - outside of maybe when Bubba Smith and them played - and trust me, that's overlooking myself, Lorenzo White, Mark Ingram, Tony Mandarich and that crew, a team with four All-Americans and four first-round picks. I'm looking over that when talking about where this program is now. So to have him to be able to commit to a program of this magnitude, it's like surreal.

"And he's a great kid. Outside of football, he's a great kid."

Hunter has inherited much of Andre's talent. But Andre proudly admits that Hunter has more of a smiling, sunny disposition than the formerly hard-edged father had as a teen-ager. And the newly-soft and amiable Andre loves it.

"It's his time," Rison said. "It's his experience. It's his turn. I'm just here to support him and I've always supported Michigan State football. So that will just fall hand in hand."

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