Michigan State football: 4-star ATH Jaden Mangham will be tough to land

West Virginia has been making some noise with a lot of top Michigan State football targets in the 2022 recruiting class and that includes four-star Franklin, Mich., athlete Jaden Mangham.

Just a few years after missing out on his older brother Jaren Mangham from Detroit Cass Tech, Michigan State looks to be losing some ground with Jaden. West Virginia has been trending with the Michigan-based prospect for about a month now and he’s getting ready to make a decision on Aug. 1 and the likely choice is the Mountaineers.

Mangham did release a top five, however, and Michigan State made the cut along with Michigan, Illinois, Georgia Tech, and obviously West Virginia.

While he never took an official visit to Michigan State like he did with Illinois, Georgia Tech, and West Virginia, the Spartans hosted him on an unofficial in June. Was it enough to win him over as a defensive back in Harlon Barnett’s secondary?

Right now, I’d say that isn’t likely to happen.

Mangham’s older brother was recruited by and did play for Mel Tucker in Colorado, but even that may not be enough to lure him to East Lansing.

Michigan State currently has two safeties, a cornerback, and two more athletes who could play defensive back already committed in its 2022 class, so that may be what’s holding Mangham back even though he’d be the Spartans’ top-ranked pledge.

What are Michigan State football’s chances?

Landing the four-star and No. 289 overall recruit in the class is going to take some work by Tucker and his staff at the buzzer, but with the dead period upon us, it’s not possible to get him to East Lansing for one final pitch from the staff.

West Virginia holds every crystal ball on 247Sports for Mangham which is pretty telling and the confidence levels are pretty high.

Before his trip to West Virginia and prior to all the crystal balls flooding in, I would have given the Spartans a 50/50 shot, but that’s more like a 10 percent chance, at best, right now.

Mangham is one of my favorite recruits in the class and probably the one from Michigan not named Alex VanSumeren that I really wanted the Spartans to land. Unfortunately, it looks like the country roads will be taking him home to West Virginia.