Michigan State football to host All-MAC LB transfer

Jonathan Smith is not messing around. The soon-to-be second-year Michigan State football coach has been living in the transfer portal so far this offseason and despite losing 12 players to said portal, he has also landed a dozen transfers.

But he's nowhere near done.

Smith landed two dozen transfers a year ago which was almost expected for a brand-new head coach but this year's class could be nearly as big, especially since he signed a relatively small 2025 recruiting class.

He's working hard on some top targets, including a new one in Eastern Michigan linebacker transfer James Djonkam.

Targeting a transfer who played locally like this could be huge for Michigan State because the other competition for him is West Virginia and Virginia Tech. He is from Virginia which makes the Hokies a huge threat, but as long as he liked living in Michigan, Smith can sell him on the beauty of East Lansing.

And he can also sell him on playing time.

Michigan State is losing Jordan Turner and Cal Haladay which means there are some voids at linebacker that Wayne Matthews III and Jordan Hall could use some help with. The depth at linebacker is decent, but picking up an All-MAC player like Djonkam can make it even more impressive.

Djonkam began his career at Arizona State and he had 35 total tackles and three tackles for loss over two seasons and he was teammates with 2024 transfer to the Spartans, Ed Woods. He could also help sell the program to Djonkam.

In 2024, the Eastern Michigan linebacker had a career year, totaling 98 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, three sacks, four pass breakups, and a forced fumble, earning All-MAC second-team honors.

This would be a massive get for Smith and Co.