Michigan State football lands elite 4-star DL Alex VanSumeren

If you told me about 6-7 months ago that Michigan State football would land back-to-back four-stars at the end of July after flipping a four-star quarterback from Boise State at the end of June, I wouldn’t have believed you.

While Mel Tucker has been a solid recruiter over the span of a year and a half, he hadn’t been able to recruit in person with COVID-19 forcing a long dead period from last March until June 2021.

On Friday afternoon, he landed his second straight four-star pledge in the form of defensive lineman Alex VanSumeren who was on campus for an official visit as soon as the dead period ended in June. He was also high on Clemson, Northwestern, and Penn State before ultimately choosing the Spartans along with his brother and Michigan transfer Ben VanSumeren.

Alex is ranked the No. 180 overall recruit in the 2022 class and 26th-best defensive lineman, according to the composite.

With this commitment, he becomes the Spartans’ top-ranked pledge, edging out Antonio Gates Jr. who committed on July 26. Michigan State’s top four commits in the 2022 class have all committed in the span of a month.

Not too shabby for a relatively new coach who took over a program trending down, right?

Tucker is selling Michigan State football at a high level

A few months ago, people were worried that Michigan State wasn’t landing four-stars, but now Tucker has made a serious impact thanks to official visits.

The second-year head coach knocked Big Ten Media Days out of the park and has taken his success off the field one step further to the recruiting trail. He’s selling the Michigan State football program at an elite level, picking up commitments from guys Mark Dantonio wouldn’t have (no disrespect to the coaching legend, but his recruiting fell off drastically).

Here are the four-stars Tucker has landed in the 2022 class as of July 30:

• Alex VanSumeren, DL (top-200 player)
• Antonio Gates Jr., WR (top-250 player)
• Katin Houser, QB (Top247 recruit, Elite 11 finalist)
• Jack Nickel, TE (four-star on ESPN, former Notre Dame commit)
• Ade Willie, CB (four-star on ESPN)

Michigan State’s 2022 class was No. 28 in the nation before the VanSumeren commitment and it’s sure to rise to that top 25 range.

Tucker is doing a great job this summer and I’d put money on his 2023 class being in the top 20.