Transfer Portal Analysis: Michigan State’s Top 7 impact transfers for ’23
In the latest of a SpartanMag series of articles analyzing Michigan State’s incoming transfer portal class, today and tomorrow we will rank our choices for the top seven impact portal transfers for the 2023 season. Today, the top four:
East Lansing, Mich. – Of the 18 transfers Michigan State acquired out of the portal, some will be expected to earn starting jobs right away, others might be one-year depth players, and others could pay dividends in two or three years.
When tasked with compiling a ranking of Michigan State’s most impactful transfers for 2023, many factors swirled into consideration.
Some of Michigan State’s 18 transfers have starting experience. Others have starting potential. Some are proven college football players. Others are just beginning their careers.
Four of the transfers – defensive tackle Jalen Sami of Colorado, running back Nathan Carter of UConn, running back Jaren Mangham of South Florida, and wide receiver Alante Brown of Nebraska – had nailed down starting jobs at their previous schools. Three were spot starters – Tunmise Adeleye at Texas A&M, cornerback Terry Roberts at Iowa, and tight end Tyneil Hopper at Boise State.
My choices for the seven players who are likely to have the biggest impact for Michigan State in 2023 revolve around areas of need, established ability and, in some cases, untapped potential.
Today, we run players ranked No. 1 through No. 4. Tomorrow, we will run No. 5 through No. 7 with some honorable mentions.
1. RB Nathan Carter
“He’s an upgrade,” a Michigan State assistant coach told me last week, in reference to Carter.
Nothing against Jalen Berger or last year’s second- and third-string running backs – Elijah Collins and Jarek Broussard, who have since moved on – but the word from the inside is that Carter offers a little extra juice at the running back position compared to what Michigan State had available in 2023.
That’s the word. I haven’t necessarily seen it with my own eyes, but he has impressed thus far on the practice field and in the weight room, and he established some pretty good film while at UConn.
Berger rushed for 683 yards last year, marking the second time in three years that he has led a Big Ten team in rushing (he led Wisconsin with 301 yards during the COVID-shortened 2020 season). Berger was still improving at the end of last season, so he is capable of making a jump in 2023. He may need to improve in order to beat out Carter and Jaren Mangham for the team lead in carries.
Carter (5-10, 190, R-Soph., Rochester, NY) was among the nation’s leaders in rushing last year when he was lost in game four to a shoulder injury. He finished the year with 405 yards at 6.2 per carry.
Insiders tell SpartanMag that Carter ran good and hard in the first two scrimmages of the spring. He has a reputation as being a supportive team player. He will need to demonstrate a level of durability. That’s a bit of a question mark.
Carter rushed for 190 yards (on 20 carries) last year against Utah State and 123 against Central Connecticut State. He rushed for 123 yards against Vanderbilt in 2021.
Tunmise Adeleye might be the most popular pick to be atop this set of rankings, but we’ll go with the player who is more established, even if Adeleye likely has a clearer path to a starting job. That being said, Carter could emerge as Michigan State’s feature back, or he could sink like Broussard and fail to overtake Mangham and Berger. There are no sure things in the portal, but Carter has enough juice, opportunity and history to get the No. 1 spot on this list.
SPRING UPDATE: Carter had only three carries in Michigan State’s 2023 spring game. That was consistent with the light work load that Kenneth Walker III received in the 2021 spring game.
SpartanMag’s notes on Carter from the spring scrimmage:
+ Carter had a nice 8-yard run on a pin-and-pull trap behind center Dallas Fincher. Tight end transfer Ademola Faleye had a nice stalemate on Cal Haladay as an insert blocker. (That’s progress for Faleye. At Norfolk State, he did not look good as a blocker in the game I reviewed.)
Left tackle Keyshawn Blackstock used quick, short steps to get out to the second level on this play, and was able to square-up the Mike linebacker, Jordan Hall. (Blackstock is a junior college transfer and wasn’t considered for this transfer portal ranking in this story).
= Carter had 2-yard gain on another pin-and-pull.
– Carter was stopped for no gain on duo isolation when Haladay blew up tight end Tyneil Hopper and bounced Hopper into Carter, clogging up the play.
2. DE TUNMISE ADELEYE
Tunmise Adeleye (6-4, 290, R-Soph., Katy, Texas) started the first two games at Texas A&M last year before being lost to a high ankle sprain in the third.
“There’s a reason that I was on the field,” Adeleye said. “The ending of my season so prematurely, I didn’t get to really display to the world what I had shown to the coaches at A&M.”
Adeleye missed the 2021 season with an undisclosed injury. He didn’t play in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
So he has played and finished only two football games since 2019. Rating him No. 1 on this list is a bit of a blind faith reach. It’s based largely on potential.
Adeleye was ranked the No. 41 recruit in the country in the On3 Industry Rankings coming out of high school in 2021.
But he did enough to earn a starting assignment at Texas A&M early last year, and looked good in the Michigan State spring game.
“I know that Coach Tuck is going to give me the opportunity to show the world what I had shown other people previously,” Adeleye said. “He is at practice, he watches film, he knows what’s going on, so hopefully I can show the world and prove to myself that I am who I say I am.”
He was credited with five tackles and a half tackle for loss against Appalachian State last year.
“Game one was just a game of getting my feet wet,” he said. “Game two (against App State), I kind of established more of a presence. I had five or six tackles, three pressures. I started to do more of what I’m capable of. I feel like I can take over a game at any given moment and I want to display that.”
He gives Michigan State jumbo size at defensive end. He will likely move inside in pass rush situations.
“It’s the same thing I did at A&M,” he said. “First and second down, I was kind of an edge guy – five (technique), 6i and nine (technique) and then on third down I would mix in playing five and three.
“They want me to be an impact player and make an impact as much as I can, and be an every-down guy, pass rush, stop the run, set the edges,” Adeleye said. “They want me to do everything. Zero (technique) is kind of new to me. That has been a big adjustment but I’m a guy that is always going to go with the flow.”
WHERE HE FITS: Michigan State set out to increase its size on the edge, with guys who can run. Adeleye fits that mold.
Adeleye joins two other big-bodied defensive ends in sophomore Zion Young (6-6, 260, Atlanta) and Keith Bogle (6-4, 245, R-Sr., Fort Lauderdale, Fla.).
Young came on strong last year as an emergency fill-in due to injuries and attrition. He started two games and had 21 tackles on 183 snaps. He looks like a future standout.
Bogle started one game last year, against Minnesota. He played well against the run in the first three games before being lost in game four to a lower body injury. He had eight sacks in three seasons at Florida.
Avery Dunn (6-4, 245, R-Jr.) ascended from third string to starter last year while replacing injured players. He looked overmatched early in the season but quickly improved to become a serviceable player by the end of the year, ranking fourth on the team in tackles for loss with 5.5.
Sixth-year senior Brandon Wright, Penn State transfer Ken Talley and true freshmen Andrew DePaepe, Bai Jobe and Jalen Thompson are among the other defensive ends who will vie for a spot in the rotation.
SpartanMag is projecting Adeleye as a starter at defensive end, with Young or Bogle at the other end position.
SPRING UPDATE: Adeleye showed up nicely during during the Michigan State spring scrimmage with six plus (+) plays and no negative plays.
+ He beat tight end Evan Morris with a fake spin move pass rush during pre-scrimmage drills.
+ Beat tight end Jack Nickel in disrupting a duo inside run (Nickel might have been expecting double-team help from tight end Hamp Fay, which never came).
+ Adeleye displayed power with a shoulder-first bull rush against left tackle Brandon Baldwin during 9 vs 9 thud.
* Playing defensive tackle in a pass rush situation, he stunted to the outside in a twist game with Avery Dunn. Dunn and Adeleye kind of gummed up each other and didn’t get to the quarterback (Malik Carr dropped a pass for an incompletion).
+ Easily tossed aside tight end Tyneil Hopper on an inside zone near the end of the scrimmage. Jaren Mangham was held to a gain of 2 on the play.
+ Easily handled third-string left tackle Ashton Lepo to set the edge against a pin-and-pull run play by Davion Primm.
+ Took on a Lepo/Fay double team on a pin-and-pull run right at Adeleye. Adeleye split the double team, then showed one-step quickness toward the running back in making a tackle.
3. PK JONATHAN KIM
This one is based purely on need and opportunity. I’ve never seen Jonathan Kim attempt a field goal in a college football game. No one has.
But kicking consultant Dan Orner has seen Kim train and work out, and I believe Orner’s pitch. Michigan State coaches believed more than the pitch. They watched him, scouted him, evaluated him and all signs point toward Kim being the starting place kicker this fall.
Orner, who was a second-string kicker at Michigan State for a short time during the Nick Saban era before transferring to North Carolina, works with Tar Heel kickers and encouraged Kim to hit the transfer portal following his senior year.
Kim was unable to win the starting place kicking job at UNC, but was on scholarship as one of the best kickoff specialists in the country. He wanted a shot at place kicking duties at the Power Five level and Orner scouted out an opportunity for him at Michigan State.
Orner raves about Kim, and predicts that he is a future NFL Draft pick.
WHERE HE FITS: Kim has two years of eligibility remaining and is a good bet to improve upon Michigan State’s miserable 6-for-12 field goal accuracy of a year ago, with Auburn transfer Ben Patton and true freshman Jack Stone failing to impress. Stone transferred to Baylor. Patton is no longer with the program.
Kim will have to beat out walk-on redshirt-sophomore Stephen Rusnak, who was 0-for-1 in an emergency role late in the 2021 season and is 4-of-5 on extra points for his career. Nothing against Rusnak, but Michigan State needs Kim to win that competition in a landslide.
Michigan State was a missed Patton field goal away from earning bowl eligibility last year in an overtime loss to Indiana. There’s a solid chance one or two games could come down to Kim’s toe in 2023. Michigan State needs this transfer to be a big plus.
There’s a chance he could be as disappointing as Patton and Stone. Or there is a chance he could end up No. 1 on this list by the end of the season.
4. WR ALANTE BROWN
Alante Brown (5-11, 190) is a seasoned, established receiver who has potential to deliver more than the 16 catches he had last year at Nebraska.
He’s quick, aggressive and sturdy. He started 10 games for the Huskers last year as the No. 3 receiver.
Earlier this week, I watched a recording of Nebraska’s Aug. 29 game against Northwestern and focused on Brown. It’s clear to me that Spartan coaches have something to work with and develop in Brown. He never turned the corner as a difference-maker at Nebraska, but Brown could have good football ahead of him at Michigan State.
Nebraska’s quarterbacks didn’t target him a lot, but his release moves, cuts and routes look good. He was utilized mostly as a possession receiver, but has the speed and burst to be more than that.
He’s an energetic, willing blocker, which comes in handy at the flanker position, often lining up on the TE/strong side. He’s likely to be a slot receiver, or flanker (“Z”), at Michigan State.
Colleagues of mine who covered Brown at Nebraska say he was a favorite of former head coach Scott Frost. He won the team’s Tom Osborne Citizenship Award last year. Character isn’t a problem.
Brown was a quarterback at Chicago Simeon when he originally committed to Michigan State in 2019 when Mark Dantonio was head coach. He reneged on Michigan State and committed to Texas Tech. He never enrolled at Texas Tech and instead opted for a year of prep school in Connecticut, where he starred as a receiver and running back. He showed breakaway speed and excellent ability to run after the catch at the prep school level. Michigan State tried to re-recruit him, but he signed with Nebraska.
When Frost was fired and Brown elected to enter the transfer portal, Michigan State remained a school of interest for him, although it’s been more than three years since Dantonio retired and Mel Tucker took over.
WHERE HE FITS: With Jayden Reed (NFL Draft) and Keon Coleman (Florida State) no longer in East Lansing, the Spartans have only one returning receiver with more than 20 career receptions. Tre Mosley has been a reliable slot receiver for four seasons at Michigan State, entering his fifth with 98 career receptions. Mosley has been a physical, possession receiver thus far in his career but the Spartans will need him to become more of a downfield threat in 2023.
Montorie Foster (6-0, 185) has 19 career receptions, but was limited last year due to injury. A senior with two years of eligibility remaining, he has the capacity to take his game up a level.
Christian Fitzpatrick (6-4, 218, R-Jr.) has only four career receptions but made progress during the spring and could be poised for a breakthrough.
Meanwhile, Brown is a good, solid, proven player and a needed addition to the receiving corps. He’s not as good as Reed or Coleman, but someone has to be targeted with passes in 2023, and Brown is capable of delivering.
Michigan State wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins, who was a small receiver back in his NFL days, enjoys working with sub 6-foot receivers. It will be interesting to see what Hawkins is able to do with Brown. It could be quite good.
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