Former 4-star OL commit joins Michigan State football again

After all the bad news Michigan State football has gotten from the transfer portal, it’s about time they got some good news. And man did they ever on Thursday night.

Player after player has entered the transfer portal this offseason for Michigan State, and the pain ended with five guys entering the portal in the final hour. But with the portal now closed, Jonathan Smith and his staff can turn their full attention to finding the next batch of Spartans out of the portal.

And they did just that in a massive way with a commitment from four-star offensive lineman Andrew Dennis.

Does the name Andrew Dennis sound familiar to you? There’s a good chance it does because Dennis was a former Michigan State commit last summer. He was committed to Michigan State for quite some time, but backed off that commitment and moved on to Illinois after all the Mel Tucker drama.

Dennis enrolled early this spring at Illinois, but entered the transfer portal after the spring season with the Illini. When he entered the portal, Dennis hinted that he wanted to move somewhere closer to home, which happened to be great news for Michigan State. Dennis is from Mount Pleasant, Mich., so MSU is the closest Power Four school to his hometown (sorry Central).

The Mount Pleasant native is one of the top recruits in the country from the 2024 class. According to 247Sports, he is the No. 162 player in the country and the No. 7 interior offensive lineman. Dennis also is the No. 3 player from the state of Michigan as well.

Dennis may not contribute on the field this season, as most true freshman don’t on the offensive line, but this is a massive pickup for Smith and his staff. He has a chance to grow into an elite offensive lineman, and under the direction of offensive line coach Jim Michalczik, the sky is the limit.