Michigan State Football: Spartans trending with key in-state targets

Mel Tucker and the Michigan State football program are trending with more key recruits in the state of Michigan in the 2023 recruiting class. 

The recruiting wars between Michigan State football and Michigan have been heating up and as we look ahead to the 2023 recruiting class, the Spartans are off to a really solid start.

Michigan State football already has a pair of in-state commitments in the 2023 recruiting class as four-star tight end Brennan Parachek and four-star offensive lineman Johnathan Slack are both verbally committed.

Parachek is the No. 6 player in the state of Michigan for 2023, while Slack is ranked fourth. Of course, Dante Moore, the five-star quarterback from Detroit is ranked No. 1 and since the Spartans already have a 2023 QB pledge, they seem out of the race for Dante.

But, the Spartans could still add four or maybe five of the top six recruits in the 2023 class from the state of Michigan as more crystal ball projections started to come in this week for four-star offensive lineman Cole Dellinger.

Michigan State is on a roll with in-state recruiting

Dellinger is ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the state as well as 278th overall by the 247 sports composite rankings. His brother was a top-100 offensive lineman and went to LSU. Michigan has been involved here for a couple of years but it’s the Spartans who are now trending with a total of five crystal ball projections since Tuesday.

Michigan State football is also the crystal ball leader for top-200 defensive end Jalen Thompson who is the No. 2 player in the state. He’s got strong ties to the staff and with his former high school head coach from Cass Tech at Michigan State, it’s not a surprise that the Spartans are viewed as the leader although there hasn’t been a flood of projections.

Thompson did just visit Michigan and the Wolverines haven’t done all bad in the state. Last year, they landed the top recruit in Will Johnson and already have Cole Cabana, the No. 1 running back in their class and he was a player the Spartans really wanted too.

Michigan is also the leader with Amir Herring, the No. 3 player in the state, which is in addition to having two top-8 commitments in its own right in Cabana and wideout Semaj Morgan.

If U-M is able to win the commitments of Herring and Moore, a much more difficult prospect, it will have the top recruiting haul in the state for 2023. But the Spartans should be able to get Dellinger and Thompson, which would give them four of the top-6 in the state.

So no matter how you slice it, both Michigan State football and Michigan still have a chance at elite in-state recruiting hauls. Yet, Mel Tucker’s team feels much closer to actually making it happen, in another sign of in-state recruiting dominance slipping away from U-M.