Ann Arbor Skyline receiver and MSU commit Hunter Rison.
EAST LANSING – In two weeks, Hunter Rison will go from high school recruit to college football player.
Michigan State’s 2016 swoon did nothing to prevent that from happening. And none of his future classmates have wavered from their commitments, either.
The next step is filling out the rest of who will join the 17 who plan to be freshmen in the fall.
“We still have guys on the table, and a lot of guys are interested,” said Rison, the son of former MSU star Andre Rison. “Who wouldn’t be interested in MSU? Even through a 3-9 season, who wouldn’t be interested? But we really stay on guys.”
The Spartans had 16 players committed for their 2017 class going into their eventual 3-9 season, then picked up another NFL legacy (Connor Heyward) earlier this month. They’ve missed on the top six in-state recruits, with all of them joining Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, but MSU has not lost any players it had commitments from before its disastrous fall.
And coach Mark Dantonio doesn’t believe the Spartans have lost any luster among high school prospects.
“Michigan State still has a great name out there. There’s a buzz out there when we walk in,” Dantonio said. “People remember Rose Bowls, the Big Ten championships — we’ve won two out of the last (four). So there’s a lot of positives that people can identify with in coming to Michigan State.”
Hunter Rison is listed at 5 feet 11 and 190 pounds.
Without a bowl game to prepare for this year, MSU’s coaches invested their time refocusing on recruiting. Dantonio said he expects the 2017 class to add anywhere from four to seven more players by the time signing day arrives on Feb. 1.
Bill Kurelic, a recruiting analyst for Bucknuts.com and 247Sports who has covered the Midwest scene for 30 years, doesn’t believe the dropoff from a College Football Playoff berth a year ago to being entirely out of the postseason this season will have a major effect on the Spartans long-term.
“Even though they’re coming off a down season, the results speak for themselves,” Kurelic said. “Michigan State has been really good for the last few years. Mark Dantonio’s done a great job. They can still sell a winning program. They’re coming off a number of years of winning football and going to big-time bowl games.
“Even though this year wasn’t a ‘winning season,’ unquote, they can sell winning football in East Lansing because Mark Dantonio’s done a lot of that.”
The current crop of commitments for 2017 is ranked 21st by Scout.com, 28th by 247Sports.com and 29th by Rivals.com. That includes three four-star recruits in Rison, offensive lineman Kevin Jarvis and tight end Matt Dotson, along with 14 three-star prospects according to 247Sports’ composite rankings.
It’s a group of players who have remained connected with each other via text messages, social media, phone calls and video games throughout the Spartans’ struggles this fall. And it’s a collection of players who believe they already have established a bond that has kept them bound to their pledges.
Darien Clemons.
“(Dantonio) thinks we’re ready to roll in and get business done,” said Darien Clemons, a versatile prospect from Piqua, Ohio. “He feels our class is going to push the 2016 class to do better, because we’re not going to let up.”
MSU was a young team this season, partly due to attrition to the NFL and transfers, partly due to a glut of injuries — 20 players listed missed a combined 50 games. The Spartans played a record nine true freshmen from its 17th-ranked 2016 recruiting haul, including defensive tackle Mike Panasiuk.
His brother, Jacub, is part of the 2017 class. From afar, the younger Panasiuk saw a team that didn’t have the same upperclass connection it had in previous years. He called it a “fluke year” in terms of the results and — like the rest of his incoming class, which he feels is already like a family — Panasiuk hopes to make an immediate contribution next fall.
“From watching what my brother went through, seeing him come in right away and play as a true freshman, I think everything will come down to how my summer camp goes when I’m there for good,” said Panasiuk, a defensive end. “Overall, just watching Mike be a true freshman and have some outstanding games, that makes me want to get up there even faster and just grind now.”
Jacub Panasiuk, right, is a three-star defensive end from Roselle (Ill.) Lake Park. At left is Panasiuk’s brother, Mike, a freshman for MSU this season.
Kurelic pointed to MSU’s down season and Harbaugh’s in-state success this year, landing eight of the top 13 players in 247Sports.com’s composite player rankings, as two things that have made Dantonio’s recruiting “a little more difficult” heading into the final month-plus of chasing prospects for next season.
Rison, who is MSU’s top in-state player on that list at No. 10, said he and his future Spartans are following along with who’s going where. He said his soon-to-be coaches have told them just to be prepared for their own chances to potentially play right away in East Lansing.
“Every time that Michigan gets a recruit, we talk about it,” Rison said. “That’s just motivation for us. … (Coaches say) don’t dwell on all this stuff that’s going on across the street in Ann Arbor. Just prepare.
“All of us know that Coach Dantonio has won Big Ten championships with teams loaded with two-stars and three-stars. We’re not even tripping, man. He just tells us to stay confident, prepare and be ready to work. And that’s what we’re doing.”
Heyward, whose father Craig was teammates with Andre Rison with the Atlanta Falcons in 1994, bypassed a chance to go to his parents’ alma mater Pitt, which is coached by former MSU assistant Pat Narduzzi. His brother, Cameron, played at Ohio State and currently is with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Connor Heyward with his mother Charlotte.
Connor Heyward — who played five positions this year for Peachtree Ridge High in Georgia — picked the Spartans on Dec. 9, the first to make his pledge since July. Dantonio’s sales pitch stuck with him.
“They told me they had some Georgia players up there in previous years and how they got drafted,” said Heyward, who made it six different states in MSU’s class. “When I sat down in the film room with Coach Dantonio, (co-defensive coordinator Mike) Tressel and (co-offensive coordinator Dave) Warner, we went over offensive things they could see me doing, and then we went over defensive things. A lot of people recruited me as an athlete but they weren’t showing me. They could be telling me one thing but really wanting to use me in another way, but at Michigan State, they gave me the idea and the image in my head.”
Two players Heyward referenced were Darqueze Dennard and Keith Mumphery. Kurelic believes Dantonio and his staff have continually done a great job pushing players on to the NFL — including two-star recruit Le’Veon Bell and unranked Jack Conklin — despite not having top 5 or 10 recruiting classes.
“They can sell development and winning,” Kurelic said. “And another thing they can sell now a little bit is, coming off a season in which they didn’t win big, they can sell a little bit of, ‘We didn’t win big this year, you may have a chance to come in and play pretty quickly here perhaps.’ That’s really big to prospects, too, being able to play early.”
That’s something Rison hopes to do in the next few months. He has already graduated from Ann Arbor Skyline High and will begin college when MSU returns to classes Jan. 9. That means he’ll be involved in winter workouts and spring practices, getting his indoctrination early to give him a head start on camp in August.
“I think the guys coming know that Coach Dantonio doesn’t play favorites with seniors, juniors or sophomores. He’ll play a freshman, it doesn’t matter,” Rison said. “If you show you can play and you put in the work to handle that opportunity when you’re put in the game, shoot, he’s gonna play you.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
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MSU CLASS OF 2017
Here are the Spartans’ 17 committed players as of Friday for their 2017 recruiting class.
Weston Bridges, RB, 6-1, 200, Akron, Ohio (Copley High)
*Jack Camper, TE, 6-4, 225, Bradenton, Florida (IMG Academy)
Matt Carrick, OL, 6-4, 320, Massillon, Ohio (Washington High)
Darien Clemons, ATH, 6-1, 210, Piqua, Ohio
Matt Dotson, TE, 6-5, 226, Cincinnati (Archbishop Moeller)
Connor Heyward, ATH, 6-1, 200, Suwanee, Georgia (Peachtree Ridge High)
Kevin Jarvis, OL, 6-5, 315, Park Ridge, Illinois (Maine South High)
Mustafa Khaleefah, OL, 6-6, 285, Dearborn
Rocky Lombardi, QB, 6-3, 220, West Des Moines, Iowa (Valley High)
Dominique Long, DB, 6-2, 185, Westerville, Ohio (Westerville South High)
Jacub Panasiuk, DE, 6-4, 260, Roselle, Illinois (Lake Park High)
Lashawn Paulino-Bell, DE, 6-3, 230, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Jordan Reid, OL, 6-4, 284, Detroit (Cass Tech)
* Hunter Rison, WR, 5-11, 190, Ann Arbor Skyline
* Josiah Scott, DB, 5-10, 165, Fairfield, Ohio
Cody White, WR, 6-3, 190, Walled Lake Western
Donovan Winter, DE, 6-4, 240, Orlando, Florida (Bishop Moore Catholic)
* Enrolling in January
Jacub Panasiuk