There have been several players who have transferred away from the Michigan State football program this offseason who would have had huge roles in year one of Pat Fitzgerald.
One of those players was Chance Rucker.
The former four-star cornerback who committed to Mel Tucker spent three years in East Lansing playing for two coaching staffs. He was a fan favorite early on in his Spartan career and played really well as a true freshman in 2023, totaling 23 tackles, four pass breakups, and a pick. He suffered an injury as a sophomore and redshirted and played sparingly before an injury in 2025.
Rucker decided to hit the transfer portal instead of playing for a third coaching staff in four years in East Lansing and he ended up at Arizona State where Sam Leavitt had been starring.
Unfortunately, just like Leavitt, Rucker is no longer with the Sun Devils, per reports.
Just ahead of fall camp, the former Michigan State cornerback and the Sun Devils have reportedly “parted ways” without a reason being named publicly.
While I would love to see a defensive back with potential like Rucker back in the green and white, I’m not sure that he’s feeling “homesick” from East Lansing but rather didn’t fit in at Arizona State. But hey, we saw Charles Brantley do it, so why not?
Obviously there’s like a 0.01% chance of this happening so it’s not even worth talking about.
Chance Rucker is another one of those “what if” former Spartans
Michigan State has landed several impressive recruits since Mark Dantonio retired, believe it or not, but a lot of these highly-touted prospects just never panned out in East Lansing for whatever reason before deciding to transfer out.
Some of the reasons were a mystery — like Ma’a Gaoteote or Bai Jobe — while others were due to a wave of injuries that they just couldn’t seem to bounce back from. Rucker was the latter.
Rucker’s first season in East Lansing was hectic with a coaching change and a scandal all happening as he watched the guy who recruited him get canned for off-the-field reasons. He still stuck around, had a strong true freshman season and looked like he was going to be a starter as a sophomore for Jonathan Smith. He started the 2024 opener and then suffered a season-ending injury in his second game.
Rucker came back in 2025 and was hoping to get back to that high level of play that we saw in 2023 and enough to make him the starter in the 2024 opener, but he just never looked the same.
Coming off an injury is never easy and that first year is usually pretty rough as players need time to shake off the rust, so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that was the reason he just didn’t look quite as effective. That, and the fact that he got injured and missed the final few games of the 2025 season, too.
Wherever he ends up, if he gets back to full health, I think he could develop into a guy who plays on Sundays in a few years.
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