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

Is this a bad sign for MSU and should we be worried about Tucker’s approach?

The short answer is no, and an emphatic one at that.

Mel Tucker has brought Michigan State back on the map faster than anyone ever expected. However, this is something to watch in years to come. MSU brought in two highly-coveted transfers in Jacoby Windmon and Aaron Brule and they will more than likely make an instant impact on a high-performing team expected to now compete for a Big Ten crown and another New Year’s Six Bowl bid if not a College Football Playoff berth this next season.

Expectations are sky-high and those players will more than likely help them achieve what they are blazing a path to do next year.

The part to watch is how often young players get moved down the depth chart in favor of desired transfers with only a short time of eligibility left on their college careers. Ma’a Gaoteote was that type of player in which that happened to, however, others like Cal Haladay found instant playing time and success.

More than likely, this was a situation of the player not having enough exposure to the program, scheme, and even coaching staff to understand what was in store for him once he reached campus. As a reminder, Gaoteote came from California, was a signing day flip, in a year that was still a bit tremulous in recruiting because of the ongoing pandemic. This was Tucker’s first full recruiting cycle after all, too. He’s still getting “his type” of players to the program and that will take time and adjustments as he finds his true groove. One that looks very promising in the coming years.

Situations like this will happen, but as Michigan State continues its ascension up the recruiting ranks, as it will and is expected, in the coming years this will be something to watch.

How do Tucker and his staff engage the five-star recruits and keep them on campus instead of instantly looking for a new home after one year? It concerns me that the situation with Quinn Ewers, at Ohio State, is one that could happen in the future for Michigan State if the staff is not careful.

This isn’t a doom and gloom, an indictment on the staff, or an insinuation that they are doing something wrong. Transfers like Michigan State has endured are expected when you have a staff with a completely different type of player they’re looking for, not to mention the ability to recruit at a higher level than the predecessors.

The pressures of a $90 million contract and an expectation to win make one think differently about the way they build a program and how fast it is expected to turn things around. It was Tucker’s prowess that got him that contract and his ability to show instant results and now the expectations will be to maintain that. Roster turnover, and bringing in instant-impact players, will be key to doing so. But bringing in high school recruits that are highly coveted and developing them will be even more important and a must to sustain it.

A transfer like Gaoteote, who was highly coveted coming out of high school by many, just one year after donning the green and white hat on National Signing Day is now throwing that aside for the transfer portal in search of more playing time.

It’s a head-turning situation, and because Tucker has placed such an emphasis on the transfer portal combing for instant impact players, this will be one to watch in the coming years. A strategy that has worked to turn things around quickly, but could prove to limit the potential and long terms success of the program, if leaned into too heavily, as a strategy going forward.

It’s not time to sound the alarms or think that the train is falling off the tracks just one year after it got heading in the right direction. It’s just a situation to monitor, and how the football staff handles this, as we continue to watch the Spartans reach new heights in years to come.