Using Pat Fitzgerald in the same sentence as Mel Tucker isn’t usually the comparison that Michigan State fans want to hear, but the Spartans’ new head coach may have received the first positive comparison to the former head coach.
Tucker may have been a mediocre Xs and Os coach in East Lansing, but he was an impressive recruiter who constantly had the Spartans in the mix for blue-chip prospects.
Landing these prospects was a different story. Michigan State would be in the final three or five and seemingly hold a lead or be right in the mix before “finishing second”. That was the theme of Tucker’s recruiting following the Kenneth Walker III season.
Fitzgerald has shown the ability to get big-time recruits to campus, but he’s probably going to avoid the finishing second curse that Tucker was a victim of.
Lansing a few top recruits from the May 29 official visit weekend would show that he’s a much better closer than Tucker was. This is the biggest official visit weekend of Fitz’s MSU tenure.
Michigan State’s list of official visitors is long
Michigan State is reportedly hosting 15 top recruiting targets this weekend, including a handful of four-stars. The Spartans had a couple of big-time defensive line targets cancel their visits and one of them just committed to Indiana, but they replaced those losses with two other four-stars in Gideon Gash and Deontay Malone.
Here are the four-stars that will be on campus for this massive recruiting weekend:
- Deontay Malone, ATH (No. 303)
- Anthony Cartwright, TE (No. 395)
- Reinaldo Perez, DL (No. 296)
- Caleb Johnson, OT (No. 248)
- Gideon Gash, ATH (No. 70)
That’s a really good list of recruits and that is just further proof that this is the biggest and most impressive recruiting weekend at Michigan State since Tucker was getting five-stars to campus during that 2022 offseason. The vibes were so high then.
Fitzgerald will look to replicate those vibes but actually land these prospects and not finish second like Tucker did. He’s already proving to be a really good recruiter considering he’s been out of the game for a few years and he’s still getting used to the NIL and transfer portal era.
In due time, I believe Fitzgerald lands regular top-25 classes.
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