Mark Dantonio made a living out landing overlooked recruits and developing them into NFL prospects. Pat Fitzgerald is clearly trying to follow the same blueprint.
Michigan State has experienced a ton of success by going this route.
Dantonio landed guys like Jack Conklin, Connor Cook, Trae Waynes, Darqueze Dennard, Kirk Cousins, and Le’Veon Bell who were all overlooked as recruits and a good chunk of them were two-star prospects. Time will tell if Fitzgerald will be able to do the same thing in East Lansing.
Over the weekend, he offered one of the more overlooked recruits from the state of Georgia in unranked cornerback George Murray III.
THE Michigan State Offered !! @PoteatCoach @DbCoachJulian @CoachKenyon @coach_g007 @najehwilk @C_Robinson247 @StephenM_Brooks @JustinThind @Kenny_Jordan5 @JasonKillop @Birm @AllenTrieu @coach_g007 @benjaminwolk pic.twitter.com/qSYxQpYuNT
— 3⭐️ George “GM3” Murray III (@georgemurray_33) May 8, 2026
It’s obviously too early to tell if Murray is a hidden gem, but he reminds me of a certain former unranked Georgia-based cornerback who didn’t exactly have a huge offer sheet out of high school. That would obviously be Dennard.
Darqueze was an overlooked recruit from Georgia who was eventually listed as a low-three-star by the composite, but he wasn’t listed on 247Sports in the 2010 class. Murray plays an aggressive style of cornerback and he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. That was one of Darqueze’s specialties. He was a lockdown corner who played aggressively and he was always in the right place.
Like Dennard, Murray doesn’t have a crazy offer sheet with Michigan State being his only Power Four offer as of May 11.
Plus, the two have the exact same build coming out of high school in Georgia: 5-foot-11, 175 pounds.
I’m not saying that Murray is the next Darqueze, but that would be a fun storyline to follow if he does commit to Fitzgerald and Michigan State.
The four-star recruits will come for Michigan State
The term “3-star U” has applied to Michigan State since before the Dantonio era, and it was only strengthened by Coach D’s ability to land underrated recruits and turn them into stars.
Rarely was Dantonio after the elite recruits in every class. He did land some five-stars like William Gholston and Malik McDowell, but he was more inclined to go after the underrated three-stars and I think the 2016 recruiting class was just another reason for him to avoid going after mostly blue-chip recruits.
I do think that Fitzgerald will have better recruiting luck just because NIL will work in Michigan State’s favor with some big recruitments and he’s already recruiting at a high level with some key four-star prospects and he hasn’t coached a game yet.
Establishing a base with underrated three-star prospects and unranked hidden gems like Murray is how Fitzgerald can replicate the success that Dantonio had.
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