Michigan State football could be on commit watch for top in-state ATH

While basketball -- along with the hockey team -- has taken center stage for Spartan fans, Jonathan Smith has quietly been working on the Michigan State football program.

Outside of signing a top-40 recruiting class that was ranked in the 90s when he took over, Smith hosted his first Junior Day in East Lansing last week and it got some rave reviews. Some 2025 class attendees were impressed by what Smith has been building in his short time with the program and one in-state prospect is even on commit watch.

On Thursday, the Spartans received a flurry of crystal ball predictions to land three-star in-state athlete Desmond Straughton who is a borderline four-star on 247Sports.

Three Michigan State insiders placed crystal balls for the Spartans to land Straughton, who hails from Roseville, Mich., and so did national recruiting analyst Allen Trieu. It seems like that's good enough to feel confident that the talented athlete and state of Michigan's fifth-best prospect will be donning the green and white in college.

It's still very early in the recruiting process for Straughton as he has yet to begin his senior year, but this is a good sign for the Spartans.

Straughton is ranked the No. 15 athlete in the class by 247Sports and he's rated an 89 overall (90 is usually four-star status) so he might get that fourth star by the end of the summer.

It's good to see Jonathan Smith prioritizing the Midwest and focusing on landing the best in-state kids. Landing Straughton could set off a domino effect and get some other in-state guys to commit, but we'll have to wait and see if he commits in the first place. It's looking good right now.