Pat Fitzgerald and Nick Tabacca are on a mission to turn Michigan State’s offensive line around after years of disappointment and futility.
They’re off to a decent start with additions of Ben Murawski, Nick Sharpe, and Trent Fraley from the transfer portal and they also convinced guys like Rustin Young, Conner Moore, and Luka Vincic to come back. The offensive line should be drastically improved this upcoming season given the additions and the retainment, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.
A lot of the guys mentioned above are only going to be here for a year or two max so that means Fitzgerald and Tabacca need to work on building a base with necessary depth to compete in the Big Ten trenches.
An offensive lineman like Dominic Black would be an ideal addition to the 2027 class and he could honestly push for regular snaps as a true freshman. He’s that good.
Black also just so happens to be one of Fitzgerald’s top 2027 targets and now he’s going to be on campus next month for what may just be his final official visit before the dead period. He was supposed to visit Virginia Tech on June 12, but it looks like the Ohio native swapped the Blacksburg for East Lansing on his schedule — at least that’s what 247Sports says.
Several outlets are now reporting on Black’s visit to Michigan State being set up for June.
This is a big one for Fitzgerald because he just named the Spartans in his top eight schools and he visited Indiana last weekend and left without committing. Michigan State is one of the three schools on his list to get an official visit and the Spartans get the last one. That’s huge.
Black is ranked the No. 126 recruit in the 2027 class.
Dominic Black is the kind of player Michigan State needs
Looking at the trenches over the past few years, there hasn’t been enough toughness nor consistency. Sure, there have been guys with NFL talent, but there hasn’t been a Day 1 or Day 2-caliber prospect on the offensive line.
Black could change that.
The Spartans have several guys on this year’s offensive line who I believe could be drafted, but when I think of top NFL draft prospects, I don’t exactly think of veteran transfers.
Rather, I think about guys like Rustin Young and Dominic Black. Those guys have the potential to be really good and eventually develop into Day 2 picks. If Michigan State is going to land more players like those two, the coaching staff will need to produce some offensive line draft picks that go higher than the sixth round. MSU hasn’t had that in a while and the unit has suffered.
Landing a guy like Black could set off a domino effect, especially if the group improves as much as I believe it will under Tabacca in 2026.
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