Michigan State football facing major uphill battle for Rayshaun Benny

Michigan State football is facing a massive uphill battle for one of the state’s top 2021 prospects in four-star lineman Rayshaun Benny.

Mel Tucker has faced a few uphill battles since taking over as head coach of the Spartans back in February. Some have come in the recruiting landscape and the rest have been dealing with no spring practices and the pausing of summer workouts due to COVID-19.

It’s been a tough go for the new head coach, but he’s made the best of it despite having to battle back in a number of recruitments such as Jaylen Reed and Jamari Buddin only to fall just short to Penn State in both.

Guys like Andrel Anthony, Damon Payne, Donovan Edwards and Rayshaun Benny are all still on the board as in-state targets but there’s potentially only one leaning toward the green and white.

Benny, however, released his list of top schools on Saturday evening and he included Michigan State.

The Spartans join Michigan, Arkansas, Arizona State, Kentucky, LSU, Penn State and Tennessee in his final eight and most of those schools have beaten them out for top talent in recent years.

Could this change with Tucker at the helm?

A change of Michigan State football culture

Michigan State’s culture change with Mark Dantonio’s retirement and the hiring of Tucker has helped in some of these in-state recruiting battles and it got the Spartans back in the running for most of these guys. However, the good guys may not win many of these battles until Tucker proves he can succeed on the field.

That’s what brings us to Benny who’s a four-star prospect ranked No. 189 in the class and as 2021’s No. 19 offensive tackle, according to the composite. Will the coaching change help the Spartans reel Benny away from Michigan?

The Wolverines currently look like the leader and almost a lock at this point, but nothing is over until Benny signs that NLI.

Michigan State is facing a massive uphill climb with Benny and there’s a good chance he’s going blue but that won’t stop Tucker from recruiting him until National Signing Day. I don’t expect the Spartans to land Benny, but even being in these major in-state recruiting battles is a good sign for Tucker and Co.