Spring ball is in the books for Michigan State football and the Spartans can officially begin to look at the roster and start dwindling down to hit that new 105 mark set by the NCAA.
While Jonathan Smith is working on that, he's also been recruiting. Since he's been in the middle of spring ball, he's had to get recruits on campus to check out the program and with the resources he has at his disposal compared to his days at Oregon State, recruiting should be much more stress-free in East Lansing than it was in Corvallis.
So far, however, that has not been the case.
While Smith has landed a handful of guys who he probably never would have in Corvallis, he's still recruiting in the bottom half of the Big Ten which is just unacceptable.
How mediocre has the recruiting been so far under Smith? Well, less than two weeks after hosting a top target on the offensive line in Kelvin Obot from Idaho, the four-star omitted the Spartans from his top five. That's right, Obot was on campus less than two weeks ago and he was considered a top offensive line target in the 2026 class for Smith, but he didn't even include MSU in his top five.
Fruitland (Idaho) offensive tackle Kelvin Obot, the No. 1 recruit in the state in 2026, has named his final five https://t.co/DykxAHfKD5 pic.twitter.com/nNaNfHwUGp
— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) April 22, 2025
That is an incredible fumbling of an opportunity, especially when Michigan State was considered "warm" on his interest level on 247Sports leading into the visit. There was clearly mutual interest there that has disappeared from one side.
Instead, Michigan, Oregon, Nebraska, Utah, and USC made the cut as he's likely to remain in the Big Ten but Michigan State is no longer an option.
Let's hope Smith can piece together a successful season in 2025 because it feels like that's the only thing that's going to keep the 2026 class from falling apart and being underwhelming like the 2025 cycle was. The Michigan State football program is currently lacking juice.