Talented Canadian DL plans to visit Michigan State football

I’ve said many times since Jonathan Smith was hired that I think he’s been doing an excellent job at recruiting and rebuilding the program. He did great at hitting the transfer portal hard right away and now he continues to build a solid 2025 recruiting class for Michigan State football as well.

So far Smith has gone the traditional route with who he’s recruited, being that he’s prioritized the Midwest while also using his connections out west to earn some commits as well. But now he might be going the more untraditional route with one recruit in particular who happens to be from Canada.

Emmanuel Nwaiwu is a 6-foot-4, 250-pound defensive lineman from Sainte-Croix, Saint-Laurent, Quebec. He unfortunately isn’t rated by any of the recruiting sites, but that isn’t because he isn’t a talented prospect.

Most of the recruits out of the United States don’t get ranked by our recruiting sites unless they are the best of the best. This happens because these recruits aren’t usually able to attend the recruiting site’s camps and it doesn’t makes sense for the sites to send one of their scouts to a foreign country just to watch one player.

Nwaiwu recently spoke with On3’s Jason Killop, and shared that he plans to visit Michigan State this fall. Nwaiwu also shared what he’s looking for when visiting MSU.

“I would like to see the effort they put into making sure their athletes graduate. Also I want to see how their facilities make their athletes be the best person and athlete they can.”

This is one of the best quotes I’ve seen from a recruit in some time. Obviously he wants to go somewhere where he gets along with the coaching staff and players, but his other priorities are a breath of fresh air to hear. Caring about academics is something you don’t hear from players much anymore as well as what facilities they have to make them a better person. Nwaiwu sounds like someone who could be a great leader once he gets to college, and that’s someone I want at Michigan State.

Maine, Boston College, Boise State and Akron are the only other schools to offer Nwaiwu as of now. And as long as that stays the same, I really like Michigan State’s chances in this recruitment.