OSU loses a Recruit to MSU
Yes the Vest got beat on the recruiting trail by an old friend in his own backyard. Nate Klatt, a 6-foot-4, 280 pound center committed to MSU today.
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=419605&Category=17&subCategoryID=0
Nah, they have zero national appeal. They barely have any regional appeal. Lucky for them, there are enough decent left overs in this state to stock an entire D-1 program. Wisconsin, on the other hand, is tops at picking up the scraps from all over the midwest.
"I know it's not a popular opinion around here, but I fully expect Dantonio to turn Sparty into a Wisconsin type program."
I agree - I just hope he's given time. The BXI should be a much better conference with him turning things up a notch at State and Schiano taking the reins at PSU, if that indeed happens.
Klatt is unranked on Scout and a 4-star on Rivals. He had no offer from OSU, who is still looking forward to commitments from Marcus Hall and possibly Chris Watt. I'd have been disappointed if we did offer Klatt, because we're running out of room for those two and Berry.
For Dantonio to turn MSU into a Wisconsin, he'll have to recruit well out of state. Wisconsin has its home state all to itself, and gets a lot of players out of nearby Chicago. MSU has to share this state with us, and usually loses head-to-head recruiting battles. I'm not sure there are enough Jucos, criminals and Thornhill brothers to keep them consistently stacked. (And for MSU to be consistently top 5, one of Michigan, OSU, PSU, Wisc and Illinois - not to mention Purdue and Iowa - would have to get significantly worse.)
Fact: MSU's success in the 1950s and '60s was due in large part to them aggressively recruiting black Southern players who were shut out of the segregated SEC/ACC. When those schools integrated, MSU's pipeline dried up and they've been mediocre ever since.
I dunno. The one program that could have been even slightly happy when Michigan hired Rodriguez was State. Now they have a major advantage for instate kids like Andrew Maxwell and Larry Caper. (Don't know what true WRs will do, though. It's pick your poison.) It's sort of the inverse of the JLS era, when a guy like Nichol committed to State for the offense and they almost sold Antonio Bass. They'll get a bump just from that.
I'm still skeptical MSU can ever be a Wisconsin-esque program simply because they're always going to be fighting for recruiting scraps, especially on D, in a way UW doesn't. And Dantonio's record was one game over .500 at Cinci and one game over .500 at State. I think they might be a consistent bowl team like Purdue, but multipe Rose Bowls? Not so much.