All of the best Michigan State football teams over the past decade have had one thing in common: an elite run game with a plus defense. Pat Fitzgerald is trying to replicate that.
The Spartans have pieced together a solid backfield under Fitzgerald, but it looks like it might be adding a future piece in the 2027 class. According to reports, Michigan State was close to adding another talented rusher to its backfield, and it did just that after trending heavily for him this weekend.
If you believed in 247Sports crystal balls, Michigan State landing a 2027 running back from Ohio probably wasn’t a huge surprise to you.
According to the trends on 247Sports, Michigan State was trending heavily with unranked running back Savior Owens from Massillon, Ohio. On Sunday, he committed to Michigan State.
Over the past 24 hours, Michigan State received three crystal balls to land the unranked running back from Ohio. The writing was on the wall for the Spartans to land the unranked back from Ohio who had Wisconsin, Akron, Bowling Green, Toledo, and UConn offers.
The Spartans are now up to one commit in the 2027 class as Owens is officially a Spartan pledge.
Michigan State is focusing on the backfield
Fitzgerald has been doing a really good job with the backfield, adding three backs from the transfer portal while retaining three talented rushers who were already on the roster.
Michigan State has retained Zion Gist and Brandon Tullis, and it looks like Jace Clarizio is also back, meaning three Spartan rushers are back to go along with three transfer portal additions and an H-back in Carson Gulker. The Spartans are adding Marvis Parrish from Western Kentucky, Cam Edwards from UConn, and Jaziun Patterson from Iowa.
To say the Spartans are focusing on the run game would be an understatement. Fitzgerald knows the key to a successful tenure starts with a solid rushing attack.
Michigan State needs better play out of its offensive line next season, and it can’t get much worse than what we saw under Chris Kapilovic and Jim Michalczik.
Fitzgerald wants to return this program to its “pound, green, pound” days, and fans are OK with that.