Michigan State football loses another defender to transfer portal

After spending two years in East Lansing, redshirt freshman linebacker Quavian Carter decided to enter the transfer portal on Tuesday, leaving Michigan State football.

Carter came to Michigan State as a member of Mel Tucker's 2022 class which ended up being his second-to-last as the Spartans' head coach and there was talk of potential surrounding the Camilla, Ga., native who played safety in high school. He was converted to linebacker by Tucker and that's where he stood throughout an injury-riddled 2023 season.

The linebacker room has already taken a hit this offseason with Jacoby Windmon entering the portal and Aaron Brule graduating, but Carter had yet to contribute to the green and white, redshirting in 2022 and then missing 2023 with an injury. Potential was the word that was thrown around a lot with the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder from Georgia, but he just never saw the field.

New head coach Jonathan Smith talked about wanting to retain some of the players that entered the portal, so it'll be interesting to see how he treats this Carter news. Will he pursue Carter or does he not see him in the plans for the future?

My guess would be that he and Carter had already talked about this and the two decided to part ways, but it's hard to say if the move was good or not because no one has seen what he can do.

Michigan State will have to rely heavily on guys like Cal Haladay, Jordan Hall, Darius Snow, Ma'a Gaoteote, and Jordan Turner next season in Joe Rossi's new-look defense.