LeVar Woods and Pat Fitzgerald have been cooking in the transfer portal, addressing Michigan State’s special teams immediately and almost to perfection.
On Monday, the Spartans landed another weapon for its special teams unit.
The Spartans have already landed a transfer punter, a high school All-American long-snapper, a transfer long-snapper, a five-star kicker who’s ranked No. 4 in the country, and an All-Big Ten return man who had a kick return touchdown this past season for a Big Ten foe.
On top of all that, Fitzgerald poached Woods which may have been the best move he’s made on his coaching staff. Woods is considered one of the best special teams coordinators in the country.
Special teams has been addressed almost to completion, but one final weapon was added this week already as freshman transfer punter Alex Weeks from Northern Arizona picked Michigan State.
Weeks redshirted during the 2025 season and will come to Michigan State with four years of eligibility remaining. He has to be pretty good if Woods sought him out and landed him in the portal despite already having Rhys Dakin taking care of punt duties in 2026.
Michigan State’s special teams are special again
For years, Michigan State has had 1-2 good facets of special teams, but the rest had been mediocre, at best. The Spartans had a great punter in Ryan Eckley, but the coverage unit cost them a game at Iowa. Jonathan Kim was a really good kicker, but the offense didn’t exactly give him a ton of opportunities.
Far too often, however, special teams cost Michigan State some points with poor coverage or missed short-range kicks (that 2022 miss against Indiana still haunts me).
Michigan State is now two-deep at long-snapper with a veteran and a high school All-American, two-deep at kicker with Liam Boyd and five-star Kohl’s kicker Stephen Gonzales, and now two-deep at punter with Dakin and now Weeks. All the team needs is probably one more return man.
I like what Michigan State was able to get in Nebraska return man Kenneth Williams, but maybe adding a punt returner would be ideal — unless Woods thinks he has one on the roster.
Special teams may be special once again.