Michigan State looked to have dodged another bullet on the recruiting trail with a top in-state target spurning the rival Michigan Wolverines, but instead he picked another Big Ten foe.
Five-star Harper Woods, Mich., wide receiver Dakota Guerrant was once a target of Michigan State and Courtney Hawkins had recruited him at one point in time, but he apparently narrowed his college choices down this month. Despite having a June 19 official visit planned with Michigan, the No. 1 in-state recruit decided to commit elsewhere.
On Tuesday afternoon, Guerrant committed to Dan Lanning and Oregon.
The commitment probably caught Michigan by surprise considering they were gearing up to host him in a few days, but Lanning has won yet another elite recruiting battle as Oregon reached into the Wolverines’ and Spartans’ backyard to steal a coveted recruit.
Guerrant picking Michigan would have been worst-case scenario, but it’s not a whole lot better than he’s remaining in the Big Ten for the next 3-4 years, most likely.
The five-star receiver is the No. 23 recruit in the 2027 class. He’s also the No. 4 receiver.
No, he’s not going to Michigan likely because of the coaching change affecting his relationship with the Wolverines, but he’s still going to haunt the Spartans’ defensive backfield for a few years.
Michigan State has more top-15 in-state recruits than Michigan
Two brand new coaching staffs have taken over Michigan and Michigan State and while the former has had more recent success, Pat Fitzgerald and the latter have kept up with in-state recruiting.
Michigan has the two highest-ranked commits between the two programs in Jakari Lipsey and Recarder Kitchen, but the Spartans are probably not giving up on Gideon Gash and they have commitments from the Nos. 7, 11, and 13 in-state prospects. They could also land the Nos. 3 (pipe dream), 9, 10, and 15 recruits by the end of the cycle.
There’s a non-zero chance that Michigan State could finish with more top-10 in-state commits than Michigan. That wouldn’t be too bad of a start to the Fitzgerald era.
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