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Michigan State Football: Gaoteote’s departure and potential pitfalls of transfer dependency

By Aaron Cooley-Themm

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 30: Ma'A Gaoteote #10 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates after defeating the Pittsburgh Panthers in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 30, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Adam Hagy/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 30: Ma'A Gaoteote #10 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates after defeating the Pittsburgh Panthers in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 30, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Adam Hagy/Getty Images) /
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Ma’a Gaoteote’s decision to enter the portal is a head-turning situation. Could this lead to concerns for Michigan State football with high-profile recruits?

Ma’a Gaoteote was the biggest recruit to sign with Michigan State in 2021 when he was a signing day flip from USC. A four-star signee from the sunshine state gave Spartan fans a lot to celebrate as the program had struggled at the linebacker position since the departure of Joe Bachie and Antjuan Simmons.

It was a sign of things to come and the recruiting capabilities and prowess of Mel Tucker. But just one year later, just a few short weeks after an extremely successful early signing period and recruiting cycle that gave Michigan State the best recruiting class of the modern area in 2022, we’re now searching for what went wrong after Gaoteote announced his entrance to the transfer portal last Wednesday.

Just because a player enters the portal doesn’t mean it’s a lock that they’re leaving. One of the offense’s best weapons this year, Connor Heyward, entered the transfer portal only to come back to the program and show his ability to carve out a role in a crowded backfield as an H-back/tight end. I don’t know where Michigan State would have been this last year without Heyward. He’s a success story that the portal isn’t always a sign of departures when one of your own enters.

It’s hard to look at the portal with anything other than the fondest of hearts, too, as this past year yielded the single biggest turnaround in program history, going 11-2 with a New Year’s Six victory, and bringing the first legitimate Heisman candidate MSU has seen in the modern era. The portal brought Kenneth Walker III, Harold Joiner, Quavaris Crouch, Ronald Williams, Jarrett Horst, and more.

So many transfers contributed to the successful evolution of the program this last season.

But for as promising as the portal is for programs around the country — the best aren’t built through the portal.

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