Michigan State Football: Rayshaun Benny is Mel Tucker’s first major recruiting win

Landing Rayshaun Benny wasn’t easy, but Mel Tucker and Michigan State football pulled off the massive recruiting win on Monday.

Mel Tucker has been known for his ability to recruit, but in the middle of a pandemic and with no face-to-face visits, it’s been a slow start to his first class at Michigan State.

The past few months, however, have kicked up some recruiting momentum and on Monday, the Spartans landed their third four-star in Rayshaun Benny, a defensive tackle from Oak Park.

Someone would argue that this was the first massive recruiting victory for the new coaching staff because the Spartans beat out Michigan and Penn State for the in-state four-star.

Benny was leaning toward Michigan, it seemed, for months but the new Michigan State staff put in the work for him and got back into the running. This is a recruiting win that Mark Dantonio likely wouldn’t have won and he hasn’t in years. Tucker came from behind in this recruitment to take down the Wolverines much like DK Metcalf did to Budda Baker in the Seahawks-Cardinals game a couple of weeks ago.

Michigan State is now up to 16 official commitments in the 2021 class as the Spartans have a top-50 class in the country and it’s only going to get better from here.

It’s clear that defensive line is a need for the Spartans and Benny, the No. 188 overall prospect in the class, was a must-have. He saw what Michigan State did against Michigan and wanted to be part of that resurgence.

And his confidence is noticeable as he stated during his commitment on CBS Sports, he wants to be on the Big Ten All-Freshman team. He plans to have an immediate impact.

Tucker won a big one here and this could set off a domino effect.