Pat Fitzgerald has wrapped up his first game week presser as Michigan State’s head coach and his sights are set on the season opener on Friday night against Toledo.
But that doesn’t mean that he’s completely ignoring recruiting.
Fitzgerald knows as well as anyone that recruiting can make or break a program and a couple of his Spartan coaching predecessors were proof of that. Mel Tucker swung for the fences and usually ended up on first base and Jonathan Smith seemed to be constantly bunting. Baseball analogies aside, Fitzgerald is hoping to have better luck.
It all starts with in-state recruiting. Dantonio was successful because he landed the perfect in-state targets over the years and for a while, the best players in the state went to State. Fitzgerald is trying to replicate that.
Landing three-star athlete Don Spillers over the summer was a good start, especially since he may be the key to Michigan State landing its top remaining offensive line target.
Spillers spoke to On3’s Kenny Jordan over the weekend and the three-star commit said that he and three-star offensive lineman teammate Jameer Henry have spoken about playing together at Michigan State a lot. Spillers really is the key to landing Henry.
Michigan State commit Don Spillers III talks opening game, Jameer Henry
— Kenny Jordan (@Kenny_Jordan5) August 31, 2026
“We talk about playing together a lot, and it would be amazing to continue to play with him at the next level at Michigan State.”
(On3+): https://t.co/ofbU8KLwAR pic.twitter.com/9N5iMSlFcr
If Henry’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he was a top target for Michigan State before official visit season but he didn’t plan any, per 247Sports. A lot of Spartan fans kind of forgot about him after his name wasn’t mentioned following official visit season but it’s resurfacing now that Henry is entering his senior season at Detroit King and will need to whittle his list of finalists down soon/
Right now, 247Sports has Michigan State and Missouri as his favorites with programs like Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ole Miss, Tennessee, USC, and Vanderbilt all offering, too.
Landing the 6-foot-5, 327-pound lineman who’s ranked the No. 594 recruit in the class would be huge for Fitzgerald’s first recruiting class at Michigan State.
Pat Fitzgerald’s first in-state class has been solid
If Fitzgerald is able to close the 2027 recruiting class by landing Henry, he will have two of the top 10 in-state prospects as well as four of Michigan’s top 15 recruits. That wouldn’t be too bad for a coach who just took over after spending the past few years out of college football.
How does that compare to the past few classes?
2026: 4 total in-state commits — 2 in the top 20
2025: 8 total in-state commits — 6 in the top 15 and 8 in the top 20
2024: 3 total in-state commits — 2 in the top 20
Smith had a really good in-state recruiting year in 2025 and that’s undoubtedly going to help Fitzgerald’s program turnaround over the next few seasons, but other than that, the 2024 and 2026 classes were incredibly disappointing in the state.
Plus, the only top-15 in-state signee in the 2024 class (Nick Marsh) is no longer with the program.
The bar has been set pretty low for Fitzgerald after the past five years of disappointment and everyone is expecting him to raise it exponentially.
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