Michigan State Football: Jayden Reed having top-10 season in MSU history

Nov 27, 2021; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans wide receiver Jayden Reed (1) makes a touchdown catch against Penn State Nittany Lions cornerback Johnny Dixon (3) during the fourth quarter at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 27, 2021; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans wide receiver Jayden Reed (1) makes a touchdown catch against Penn State Nittany Lions cornerback Johnny Dixon (3) during the fourth quarter at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jayden Reed is one of the handful of players left from the Mark Dantonio era. While he never actually played a single down for the legendary Michigan State football coach who landed him in the transfer portal from Western Michigan, he’s one of the few Dantonio fingerprints left on Mel Tucker’s program.

After putting up some big numbers at Western Michigan as a true freshman in 2018, he decided to join his high school teammate Payton Thorne at Michigan State. Reed was forced to sit out in 2019, per the transfer rules, and stayed in East Lansing despite the coaching change in 2020.

Playing for his third head coach in three years, Reed showed promise in 2020 despite a fumble-filled first game in a Spartan uniform against Rutgers.

Reed bounced back to finish the season with 407 yards and three touchdowns on 33 receptions. He returned in 2021 as Michigan State’s presumed top receiver and he has been nothing short of fantastic for the Spartans this season. His connection with Thorne is obvious and electric. The duo has been one of many reasons the Spartans have turned things around after a 2-5 season in 2020.

At the conclusion of the regular season, Reed has 53 catches for 948 yards and eight touchdowns. He’s having the best season of his career and he’s still somehow flying under the radar.

Reed is climbing Michigan State football leaderboards

For whatever reason (likely the emergence of Kenneth Walker III), Reed’s breakout season is flying under the radar nationally and even in the Big Ten. He’s fifth in the conference in receiving yards behind some elite company and yet no one is talking about him. He’s likely to make one of the All-Big Ten teams and he’s an afterthought in terms of elite receivers in the conference.

If he has 100, or so, yards in the Spartans’ bowl game, he will have a top-10 season in school history in terms of receiving yards. He would pass Blair White and Plaxico Burress and if he hits 1,080 yards, he will even pass up his own receivers coach in Courtney Hawkins for No. 8 all-time.

And he’s already top 10 in Michigan State history in single-season receiving touchdowns.

Oh yeah, and he might even come back for one more season in East Lansing. Let’s say he does come back and have another 1,000-yard campaign, he would pass Kirk Gibson for No. 4 all-time in Michigan State history for receiving yards. And if he has another 50-60 catches and 7-10 touchdowns, he would be top 10 in receptions and touchdown receptions. Not too shabby for a three-year MSU career.

Reed is turning into one of the all-time great Michigan State receivers and he deserves more respect.

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