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Michigan State Football: ESPN names Ade Willie, Jack Nickel 4-stars

By Connor Muldowney

EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN - DECEMBER 05: Head coach Mel Tucker of the Michigan State Spartans looks on while playing the Ohio State Buckeyes at Spartan Stadium on December 05, 2020 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN - DECEMBER 05: Head coach Mel Tucker of the Michigan State Spartans looks on while playing the Ohio State Buckeyes at Spartan Stadium on December 05, 2020 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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When you think of recruiting coverage, the two sites that come to mind are 247Sports and Rivals. There’s another site that should be a fast-riser in the industry within the next year (On3Sports) and Scout no longer has a dog in the fight.

The one recruiting database that has been used the least in recent years as it has dedicated less time and effort to getting rankings and scouting reports correct is ESPN.

While ESPN may be the least utilized of all, there are some fans who like glancing at the annual ESPN300 for player rankings. And the basketball recruiting coverage may be better than the football side of things. Still, ESPN is used for the 247Sports Composite rankings and two Michigan State football commits may soon be rising because of four-star bumps.

In fact, ESPN recently rated both Jack Nickel and Ade Willie as four-star recruits, joining Katin Houser as the other four-star in the class, and Jaron Glover got bumped all the way to a high three-star.

The ratings on ESPN for four-stars are 80 and the highest-rated player in the class is a 95 and only 12 recruits are a 90 or above. The top 69 players are over an 85 while 70 through the 300-range is between 80-85. Michigan State has three players in the 80-85 range which is good for four-star status.

And that’s surprising to see from one of the lowest-rated recruits in Michigan State’s class on 247Sports (Willie).

Michigan State football composite rankings should jump

With Willie and Nickel being named four-stars and Glover being bumped to a high three-star and fourth-highest in Michigan State’s 2022 class, the Spartans should see an overall uptick in the composite rankings on 247Sports.

For all of those people hating on Mel Tucker’s recruiting (for whatever reason), just realize that there are some experts who believe his most recent commits are huge gets.

Michigan State could finish the 2022 cycle with around 5-6 four-stars which would be a nice jump after landing just one (Ma’a Gaoteote) in the 2021 class.

Next. 5 MSU football targets who could commit in July. dark

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