Late on Wednesday night, Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald posted his now-famous (among Spartan Twitter) “Pat Signal” which teases an upcoming commitment.
There was some speculation about who it might be, but with the commitment coming before official visit season, it was truly anyone’s guess.
Early on Thursday morning, three-star defensive end Jack Schuler from Columbus, Ohio, committed to Michigan State over a handful of lesser offers from MAC programs. The commitment wasn’t what fans were hoping for on the star scale, but I think we need to learn that Fitzgerald is going to recruit a lot like Mark Dantonio.
And Schuler’s commitment is giving Spartan fans flashbacks. Dantonio was always recruiting overlooked Midwest three-stars ranked in the 1000s and that’s exactly what Schuler is.
Schuler is ranked the No. 1,034 overall recruit and he’s the 79th-best edge rusher in the 2027 class, according to 247Sports. Tell me that’s not a Dantonio-esque recruit.
If Fitzgerald has an eye for talent, but we’ll soon find out if it’s as good as Dantonio’s was.
Mark Dantonio developed several recruits like this into NFL players
Obviously not every player ranked in the 1000s is considered a “diamond in the rough” or “underrated” but it does feel like Fitzgerald has a good eye for talent and I’d be willing to bet that he wouldn’t take a commitment from Schuler unless he felt optimistic about his growth as a player.
Dantonio landed several of these types of recruits and turned them into NFL players.
Some examples off the top of my head (with their recruiting rankings:
- Le’Veon Bell (No. 1740)
- Tony Lippett (No. 928)
- Jeremy Langford (No. 1259)
- Darqueze Dennard (No. 1450)
- Connor Cook (No. 974)
- Shilique Calhoun (No. 928)
- Trae Waynes (No. 1199)
- Jack Conklin (Unranked)
- Montez Sweat (No. 1417)
- Khari Willis (No. 834)
- AJ Arcuri (No. 1042)
- Joe Bachie (No. 1020)
- Connor Heyward (No. 714)
- Jalen Nailor (No. 750)
- Jayden Reed (No. 1783)
All of those guys were recruited by Dantonio and all were overlooked. Each one of those underrated three-stars (and sometimes two-stars) made it to the NFL.
Fans are hoping for the same luck in the Fitzgerald era.
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