Jonathan Smith already changing recruiting strategy for 2026 class

Michigan State football’s 2025 class is off and running, and all things considered it is very solid for Jonathan Smith’s first class. The class itself is currently ranked No. 53 in the country which does not meet the standards at Michigan State, but considering where Mel Tucker left the program it really is quite impressive.

However, recruiting has to improve in the long term, and there are many ways to accomplish that. And it appears that Smith is already changing his recruiting tactics for the 2026 class.

Targeting blue-chip recruits

In order to build a successful college football program, you need to recruit the best recruits. That doesn’t mean you can’t find great players who are ranked low in the recruiting rankings, but the best way to build a good program quickly is by earning commitments from the highest ranked recruits. Those are the guys that tend to pan out more often anyways.

The way to do that is by getting what’s called blue chip recruits. In simplest terms, blue-chip recruits are four and five-star recruits, anyone below that is not a blue chip recruit.

So it seems pretty simple right? Offer and target as many blue chip recruits as possible. Well it isn’t always that straight forward.

On paper that is the best thing to do, but in real life that’s not how it works. And that’s not what Smith has done with the 2025 class.

Smith and his staff so far have focused on lower ranked recruits that fit the culture and can work hard to become great players. And there’s nothing wrong with that, that’s essentially what Mark Dantonio did when he was winning Big Ten championships in the 2010s. But it appears that strategy is already beginning to change with the 2026 class.

Michigan State hasn’t earned a commitment in the 2026 class yet, but that hasn’t stopped the staff from handing out many offers. In fact, Smith and his staff have handed out 167 offers in the 2026 class already. But here’s where the difference is, of those offers, 82 of them (or nearly half) are blue chip recruits.

This is a massive difference compared to the 2025 class which doesn’t even have one blue-chip recruit committed to the program.

So while there is nothing wrong with the Spartans' 2025 class, we can clearly see how the 2026 class might end up being different. When it’s all said and done, I expect the 2026 class to be ranked much higher than the 2025 class and really start to propel Michigan State back to the program we know they are.