Michigan State Football: Transfer portal will expedite Mel Tucker’s rebuild

“We will recruit every day.”

Those words echoed throughout East Lansing as Mel Tucker was welcomed as Michigan State football’s next head coach following the sudden retirement of Mark Dantonio.

And boy, was it ever refreshing to hear.

Dantonio had struggled on the recruiting trail for a few years before retiring and it showed as the roster looked like that of a glorified MAC team. Tucker took over and knew he had a lot of work to do, but realized it would take time with years of quality recruiting.

And yes, recruiting has been a focal point for Tucker as he’s extending offers left and right and once the dead period is over, he’s welcoming dozens of top targets to campus. However, he’s found an alternate way to make up ground and rebuild even faster: the transfer portal.

The transfer portal is a relatively new concept for Michigan State fans as Dantonio didn’t quite utilize it as much as Tucker has through one full offseason.

But it’s paying off for the new coaching staff.

Michigan State football is ‘Transfer Portal U’

Not only has Tucker lost about two dozen guys to transfers, but he’s added 15 players (mostly from the Power Five) with experience and talent aplenty. He decided to expedite the rebuilding process by landing guys like Harold Joiner, Kenneth Walker III, Anthony Russo, Quavaris Crouch, Itayvion Brown, Chester Kimbrough, Maliq Carr, Christian Fitzpatrick, and a few others.

Tucker flipped the roster by shedding MAC and Group of Five talent and picking up Power Five players.

Add those guys to a decent first recruiting class with quality pieces such as Ma’a Gaoteote, Kameron Allen, Geno VanDeMark, and Keon Coleman and you have the perfect jumpstart.

The perfect mixture of returning vets (Payton Thorne, Xavier Henderson, Kalon Gervin, Jayden Reed, AJ Arcuri, Kevin Jarvis, Jalen Nailor, Jacub Panasiuk), solid true freshmen, and experienced and talented transfers is taking place and Tucker now has a roster that can actually contend for a bowl game.

After a 2-5 season, most would consider anything from 3-5 wins an improvement, but with the moves Tucker has made this offseason, anything less than 6-8 would be a disappointment.

Tucker has turned MSU into “Transfer Portal U” and that just might just expedite this rebuild.