Michigan State football reaches out to Louisville DB transfer Nicario Harper

For a second straight season, Michigan State football has a passing defense problem.

And for a second straight year, Mel Tucker plans on hitting the transfer portal to address the issue which seems to be, at the moment, talent-related.

There are some good young guys in the system like Charles Brantley, Caleb Coley, Jaren Mangham, and Dillon Tatum, but he knows that he needs to land some big fish in the portal this offseason to kind of ensure that turnaround in the secondary happens quicker.

Ameer Speed has had his struggles this year and we haven’t seen a ton of Ronald Williams, so the portal hasn’t worked wonders there yet. But Tucker is hoping the next transfer portal is different.

And he’s already reaching out to one of the top names in it.

Michigan State football eyeing Louisville’s Nicario Harper

According to The Portal Report, Michigan State has reached out to Louisville defensive back transfer Nicario Harper.

Michigan State is on the list of teams reaching out along with Oklahoma, Arkansas, Washington, Florida, SMU, and Houston. He’s going to be an interesting name to monitor.

While most of the guys teams look for are experienced at high levels, Harper has only played a handful of snaps at the FBS level at Southern Miss and Louisville but he was a star in the FCS. In fact, he was named an All-OVC first-teamer in 2021 as well as an All-American and the top defensive back in the FCS while playing at Jacksonville State.

He transferred to Louisville but hasn’t seen the field much, leading to his transfer.

While it’s concerning that he couldn’t play much with the Cardinals, it might be worth looking into since he was a legit star at the FCS level and he’s heard from plenty of FBS schools already.