Michigan State football trending with 4-star QB AJ Duffy?

AJ Duffy was supposed to be committed for almost a week now, but before his scheduled March 31 decision date, he decided to delay his announcement and take some visits.

Three schools stood out after he made this decision as he planned to visit Florida State, Arizona State and Michigan State this spring before making a final choice. Before he decided to delay his decision, it looked like Arizona State was the leader. Now? Maybe not.

If you go by only Crystal Balls, the Sun Devils are far ahead of the pack, but the delay helps both Michigan State and Florida State.

In fact, 247Sports recruiting analyst Greg Biggins said that if Jayden Daniels was guaranteed to go pro after the 2021 season, Duffy may already be committed to the Sun Devils.

"“Is Jayden going to be able to come out early this year or will he return for a fourth year? Right now, no one knows. No one has a crystal ball into knowing how well Jayden is going to play. I think that’s a big issue with ASU. I think if he knew for sure that Jayden was gone, I think he’d already be committed there.”"

Duffy wants to go somewhere he can compete for a starting job during his true freshman season and that wouldn’t happen with Daniels still in town. Florida State’s and Michigan State’s quarterback positions are far more open competitions.

AJ Duffy would be a game-changer for Michigan State football

One event that may have actually helped Michigan State’s chances to land Duffy was the fact that the Spartans offered three-star center Dylan Lopez who happens to be the four-star quarterback’s teammate. After MSU offered, Lopez decommitted from USC.

It almost seems like things are coming together perfectly in this recruitment.

After landing Hamp Fay in the 2020 class and having Payton Thorne back for his third season and Noah Kim back for year two, Mel Tucker is building an impressive quarterback room. He keeps improving the talent (Anthony Russo) and the addition of Duffy would do that yet again. The quarterback room would be better every single year with the addition of Duffy.

In fact, Tucker would go from Rocky Lombardi, Thorne, Theo Day and Kim to Thorne, Fay, Kim and Duffy. From four fringe starters to 3-4 potential future QB1s.

Duffy is ranked the No. 108 overall prospect in the 2022 class and he’s the seventh-best pro-style quarterback, according to 247Sports.

Opening an IMG Academy pipeline would be a program-changer for MSU.