Controversial photo emerges of Michigan State football commit on Michigan visit

Saturday was rough for Michigan State football fans.

First, they had to endure a Michigan win over Wisconsin in Ann Arbor with a Michigan State linebacker commit in attendance. Then, they witnessed their own team blow a 21-14 second-half lead, completely unraveling in the fourth quarter to lose 38-27. It was all-around bad.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, a picture surfaced of the Spartan commit that was in Ann Arbor throwing up the “block M” hand gesture while on the field before the game.

Michigan’s On3 recruiting reporter Ethan McDowell shared the controversial photo of the top-200 (on Rivals) recruit flashing the hand gesture while on campus for the Wisconsin game.

As you can imagine, Spartan fans weren’t thrilled about this. Obviously, you never want to see your own recruits throwing up hand gestures that are meant for fans, commits, and players of another program. It’s especially difficult to see when that program is your biggest and most hated rival. As a Michigan State commit, Hodge should know better.

Keeping the four-star linebacker committed in the 2026 class isn’t going to be an easy task for Jonathan Smith, however. Hodge has been receiving a ton of interest lately as he’s sky-rocketed up the recruiting rankings. Flipping to Michigan would be grounds for career-long villain status, though.

Sometimes it’s tough to remember that recruits are just high school kids, and their actions now don’t represent who they’ll be in the future.

It’s smart for Hodge to explore all of his options while he still can, but seeing this block M hand gesture sent some fans into a spiral.

It didn’t help that the picture was posted just as the Spartans were down 14-0 just eight minutes into Saturday’s game at Nebraska. Everyone just needs to take a step back and breathe.

J Batt will right the ship, and hopefully Hodge is still on it when he does.