With Keon Coleman leaving, what’s next for Michigan State at WR?
East Lansing, Mich. – With Keon Coleman officially transferring out of the Michigan State football program, the Spartans are losing three of their top four pass catches from last year, and three of their top four pass-catching wide receivers.
Jayden Reed graduated and was selected in the second round of the NFL Draft this spring. Single-year tight end transfer Daniel Barker has moved on after posting 21 receptions in 2022.
Michigan State’s top returning pass catcher is Tre Mosley. He had 35 catches in 2022 for 359 yards, with four touchdowns. Mosley (6-2, 198, R-Sr., Pontiac, Mich.) has 98 career receptions.
Junior tight end Maliq Carr had 16 catches last year and is expected to have an expanded role in 2023.
Michigan State also lost its seventh-leading receiver to the portal in Germie Bernard. He returned to the west coast by transferring to the University of Washington after posting seven receptions for Michigan State as a true freshman in 2022.
With such changeover at the wide receiver position, Michigan State will lean heavily on Montorie Foster (6-0, 185, Sr., Cleveland). Foster was bothered by injuries in 2022 and had seven catches for 98 yards.
Foster had 12 catches in 2021 and came through with a good spring in 2023.
Big-bodied Christian Fitzpatrick (6-4, 218, R-Jr., Southfield, Mich.) had two catches for 17 yards last year. He is a transfer from Louisville.
With walk-on Cade McDonald (three catches in 2022) transferring to Miami (Ohio), Mosley, Foster and Fitzpatrick are the only wide receivers on the roster who have caught a pass in their college careers.
Michigan State needs rapid development from sophomore Tyrell Henry and redshirt freshmen Jaron Glover and Antonio Gates Jr. All three showed progress during the spring.
Henry is regarded as the top candidate to join Mosley and Foster in the starting lineup.
Incoming freshmen Jaelen Smith (6-2, 190, Houston), Sean Brown (6-3, 195, Simi Valley, Calif.) and Aziah Johnson (6-2, 175, Richmond, Va.) will be given a long look during August camp. All three are three-star recruits who made late commitments to Michigan State in December but offer intriguing size and capabilities after posting outstanding senior film.
Michigan State will be making the transition at wide receiver while also undergoing a major change at quarterback. Two-year starter Payton Thorne announced in May that he is transferring to Auburn.
Noah Kim, a redshirt-junior with three years of eligibility remaining, is projected to be Michigan State’s starting quarterback in 2023. He gave Thorne a severe push during spring practice, with sources telling SpartanMag.com that Kim had become the internal favorite to win the starting job in 2023, prior to Thorne’s departure.
Kim has excellent arm talent and has looked terrific at times in short stints last fall and during the spring scrimmage, but Thorne’s experience can’t be immediately duplicated. Michigan State’s depth at the quarterback position also becomes a sudden concern and weakness, with redshirt-freshman Katin Houser and incoming freshman Sam Leavitt the only scholarship quarterbacks on the roster behind Kim.
In the transfer portal at wide receiver, Michigan State has shown interest in JaQuae Jackson, a Division II All-American who had 77 catches for 1,178 yards at California University of Pennsylvania last year.
Michigan State offered Jackson on May 5. Texas A&M, Miami, West Virginia, Pitt, North Carolina State, Georgia Tech and Washington State are among the others who have offered.
Jackson was listed at 6-3, 175 on the California-Pennsylvania roster in 2022. He had 58 catches for 744 yards as a sophomore in 2021.
Jackson attended Pittsburgh (Pa.) Serra Catholic. He was first-team All-State at defensive back and second-team All-Conference as a wide receiver in 2017.
He redshirted in 2018 and had 13 catches at wide receiver in 2019. California-Pennsylvania’s season was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19.
He would need to change schools as a grad transfer in order to be eligible in 2023.
Previously, Michigan State showed interest in former Alabama wide receiver Tyler Harrell and offered him a scholarship. But Harrell, a Miami native, announced on May 12 that he is transferring to the University of Miami.
Michigan State also showed interest in former Nebraska wide receiver Alante Brown. Brown had 22 career catches for the Huskers in three seasons. He has visited Michigan State and Cincinnati. The Spartans offered him a scholarship but Michigan State’s level of interest in him is unclear.
Michigan State showed interest in former Grand Valley State wide receiver Jahdae Walker and offered him a scholarship, but he committed to Texas A&M last week.
The post With Keon Coleman leaving, what’s next for Michigan State at WR? appeared first on On3.
