Michigan State Football: Is it time to panic after Cam Chambers transfer?

Cam Chambers has become the fifth Michigan State football player to enter the NCAA transfer portal in the last few weeks, but is it time to panic?

The sky is falling. Scrap the program. Something’s going on in the locker room.

Those seem to be the common sentiments among the Michigan State fanbase on Thursday afternoon after Cam Chambers announced he would be entering the transfer portal.

It’s tough to see a once-promising talent go, especially since he was one of the remaining members of that 2016 class which was supposed to change the program for the better. Though that never truly came to fruition, Chambers brought fans hope after somewhat of a breakthrough last season before an injury kept him out.

Many believed he’d have a larger role this season with receiver depth not as strong as it has been in the past, but he rarely saw action and it was rumored that it was because he was focused more on law school than anything else — he shot that notion down on Wednesday night but the tweet has since been deleted.

So now that Chambers, who had zero catches this season, is gone, is it time to panic since he’s the fifth Spartan to enter the portal in the past three weeks, joining Brandon Bouyer-Randle, Connor Heyward, La’Darius Jefferson and Weston Bridges? Absolutely not.

No, the program isn’t in a great place right now with a 4-3 record and mediocre recruiting for the 2020 class, but the transfers aren’t a product of a “sky is falling” mindset but rather these kids weren’t getting the playing time they believed they deserved.

I’m not here to defend the state of Michigan State football since I believe it should be far better than the product we’re seeing, but the guys transferring had little to no impact on this year’s squad.

Heyward and Jefferson were passed up on the depth chart by redshirt freshman Elijah Collins and that was a permanent move, Bouyer-Randle didn’t see the field nearly as much as he thought and young guys like Jeslord Boateng and Chase Kline were pushing him and Chambers saw C.J. Hayes and even Julian Barnett get on the field ahead of him.

The transfers are a product of playing time issues and not locker room chemistry. It would be silly to think otherwise.

If someone like Barnett decided to transfer or Collins or even Xavier Henderson, Kalon Gervin, Trenton Gillison or Antjuan Simmons, then yes, I’d agree there may be bigger issues. But that’s not the case.

Transfers happen, folks. It’s the new reality with the transfer portal and the new redshirt rule creating the perfect storm. Get used to it, because it’s going to happen every year like clockwork.