Michigan State football has contacted former Michigan LB in the transfer portal

The offseason for Michigan State football is about to get extremely wild as the transfer portal officially opened on Tuesday. The Spartans, who need to add a lot of talent themselves, will have to work fast to find which transfers they want to target and get as many of them on campus as soon as possible.

Jonathan Smith and his staff are already working hard on that this spring, and have reportedly already reached out to a transfer linebacker in the portal.

Who is Nikhai Hill-Green?

Nikhai Hill-Green is a junior linebacker transfer from Charlotte. He has spent only one season with Charlotte, where he had a very solid season. Last year he totaled 73 tackles, two sacks, and one forced fumble.

Before his time at Charlotte, he was at Michigan and played his first two seasons with the Wolverines. He committed to the Wolverines out of high school where he was a four-star recruit and the No. 23 outside linebacker in the country. So he was a huge addition to Michigan’s recruiting class, but his time in Ann Arbor never really worked out.

He didn’t play much as a freshman for the Wolverines, but had a decent sophomore season with 50 tackles. It was after that season where he transferred to Charlotte for a year, but he’s now hoping to make the jump back to the Power Four level.

Recruiting competition

Michigan State is one of five schools who have reportedly reached out to Hill-Green since entering the portal, according to On3 reporter Phillip Dukes. Funny enough, Michigan is one of the other schools to contact him just one year after he left their program. Now I’m not sure if their time together ended on bad terms or not, but a reunion with Michigan does seem a little farfetched to me.

Florida State, Arkansas, and Colorado are the other three schools who have reached out to Hill-Green so far as well. Based on these names alone, it’s clear this is going to be a tough recruitment to win. But Smith was able to bring in 10 transfers in the fall/winter portal period, so he’s proven that he can bring in transfer talent.

Hill-Green would be a huge addition to MSU’s roster as he would provide the much needed depth the Spartans need. So hopefully Smith is able to work his magic yet again, and beat out these other big schools and win yet another transfer portal recruitment.