Trent Fraley is proving to be college football’s biggest transfer portal steal

For years now, Michigan State’s offensive line has been a weakness and it has continued into the 2026 season despite having immense depth at the position as well as some talented newcomers.

Ben Murawski, Nick Sharpe, Robert Wright Jr., and Trent Fraley all transferred in this offseason to help Pat Fitzgerald and Nick Tabacca’s first offensive line at Michigan State. All of them have spent plenty of time on the field, but Fraley is the one that’s stood out the most through four weeks.

The most shocking aspect of his early-season dominance is the fact that he’s playing up a level from where he was last year. He was the best center in the FCS a year ago and now he’s proving to be the exact same at the FBS level.

Through four weeks, he’s looking like the biggest transfer steal in the country.

Cam Mellor of Pro Football Network posted grades for each position through four weeks and Fraley happens to be the highest-graded center in college football by a fraction.

While Fraley is playing on an offensive line that has fallen far below expectations through four weeks, he’s been a bright spot and he’s really putting the unit on his back.

Every week, he’s been grading out as PFN’s top center and this overall rating through four weeks proves that he was the biggest steal in the portal seeing as he was just the No. 724 transfer in the 2026 class which is actually laughable when you look back and think about that. Only those inside the program know what his NIL deal was, but it’s pretty obvious that Fitzgerald got him for a bargain.

Trent Fraley has been one of just a few bright spots

There haven’t been many bright spots to speak of lately, especially on offense, but Fraley may be leading that entire side of the ball as the star, especially with Cam Edwards now out for the year.

Fraley endeared himself to his teammates pretty quickly and now we’re seeing all that hard work and chemistry pay off as he continues to lead the line as the best center in college football through four weeks. If the rest of the line could feed off his dominance, the Spartans could be in store for a nice final eight games of the regular season.

The 724th-best transfer and 45th-best interior offensive lineman has emerged as an early frontrunner for the Rimington Trophy.

Without looking it up, I’d bet that he would be the first to win the award at both the FCS and FBS levels, in back-to-back years no less. He just needs to continue playing the way he has been and he’ll be taking home some hardware once the season is over.

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