Spring ball kicked off for Michigan State football on Tuesday, which is a nice change of pace after talking almost exclusively about basketball, and some hockey, over the past three months.
Pat Fitzgerald is entering his first season as Michigan State's head coach, and he has the same mindset and roster-building approach as Mark Dantonio which fans are hoping translates to another golden era of Spartan football.
That roster-building approach yielded two more commitments of the opening day of spring practice.
To start the day, it was three-star quarterback Eli Stumpf from Sunbury, Ohio, who committed to the Spartans. He's ranked the No. 52 quarterback in the 2027 class and he's going to be Fitzgerald's first true commit at the position -- I'm not counting the portal nor Kayd Coffman, although Fitzgerald did have to put in work to retain him.
Stumpf's commitment was the third for the Spartans in the 2027 class, following Savior Owens and Grant Adloff. His verbal pledge was followed by three-star offensive tackle Jack Carlson from Brighton, Mich. He's one of the best recruits in the state (No. 7 on 247Sports) and he's now the Spartans' second in-state offensive line commit for 2027.
Nice start to the 2027 class for Fitzgerald and the Spartans.
Michigan State's 2027 class jumps inside the top 30
After landing two more 2027 commitments on Tuesday to kickstart spring ball, Michigan State's recruiting class jumped considerably into the top 30 nationally.
According to 247Sports, Michigan State now has the No. 29 recruiting class in the country in 2027 which is somehow still just eighth in the conference and just ahead of teams like Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois. I expect that to change plenty before the class is officially signed in December, but I also expect the Spartans to stay in the top-30 range nationally.
Fitzgerald has taken care of some major needs in the class and he's just selling hope of a program turnaround at this point. He's getting recruits to believe in him, but he -- of all people -- knows that it's going to take results to land the bigger fish. He's getting Midwest guys who may have been overlooked by Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame (Dantonio-like strategy), but winning will also help him land some big fish.
Two commits on the opening day of spring ball is impressive nonetheless.