While the Spartans' Signing Day was a bit understated — weather washed out the planned press conference to introduce the class, and most of the potential last-minute surprise additions fell through — that doesn't mean that it wasn't successful.


The Spartans loaded up on defensive linemen (6), offensive linemen (4) and linebackers (4) in this class, nabbing one guy for the trenches — JUCO OL Fou Fonoti — on Signing Day. Reactions to the class were mixed — ESPN rated it third, fifth by both Rivals and Scout — but for the second straight year included the state's best player, five-star linebacker Lawrence Thomas, as well as a good mix of local (six in-state players) and national talent. Traverse City St. Francis OL Kyle Lints turned down MAC scholarship offers to come to MSU as a preferred walk-on.


(List taken in its entirety from MSUSpartans.com)

Name	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown (Last School)
Jack Allen	C	6-2	262	Hinsdale, Ill. (Hinsdale Central)
Juwan Caesar	WR	6-4	205	Miami, Fla. (Miami Coral Park Senior)
Shilique Calhoun	DE	6-5	225	Middletown, N.J. (Middletown North)
Donavon Clark	OL	6-4	305	Cincinnati, Ohio (Finneytown)
Brandon Clemons	DL	6-4	265	Milford, Pa. (Delaware Valley)
Arjen Colquhoun	DB	6-1	180	Windsor, Ontario (W.F. Herman Secondary School)
Connor Cook	QB	6-3	197	Hinckley, Ohio (Walsh Jesuit)
Ed Davis	LB	6-3	215	Detroit Southeastern
Fou Fonoti	OL	6-5	295	Lakewood, Calif. (Cerritos College)
Darien Harris	LB	6-1	215	Silver Spring, Md. (DeMatha Catholic)
Joel Heath	DE	6-6	250	Cincinnati, Ohio (Mount Healthy)
Taiwan Jones	LB	6-3	220	New Baltimore Anchor Bay
Damon Knox	DE	6-5	265	Muskegon
Paul Lang	TE	6-5	235	Pittsburgh, Pa. (Mount Lebanon)
Kyle Lints	OG	6-3	275	Traverse City St. Francis
Onaje Miller	ATH	5-10	180	Lansing Sexton
Matt Ramondo	DT	6-4	285	Las Cruces, N.M. (Mayfield)
Mark Scarpinato	DT	6-3	270	Milwaukee, Wis. (Marquette University)
Andre Sims Jr.	WR	5-9	170	Snellville, Ga. (Brookwood)
Lawrence Thomas	LB	6-4	245	Detroit Renaissance
Trae Waynes	DB	6-0	165	Kenosha, Wis. (Bradford)
RJ Williamson	DB	6-1	190	Middletown, Ohio (Dunbar)

The No. 13-ranked Michigan State Spartans (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) are looking to go to 7-0 for the first time since the national championship year in 1966 when they host Illinois for a homecoming game on Saturday. The Illini (3-2, 1-1) are coming off their first-ever win in Happy Valley last week, knocking off Penn State to turn down the hot seat for coach Ron Zook. Can they ruin Michigan State's homecoming and end the dream of a Rose Bowl appearance? Tune in 15 minutes before kickoff at 11:45 a.m. to find out my thoughts.

Join me for a live chat from Saturday's showdown for state supremacy, as No. 17 Michigan State (5-0, 1-0 Big Ten) visits No. 18 Michigan (5-0, 1-0), featuring the one-man gang, Denny (Denard Robinson) and his jets, against the ground green rushing attack of Edwin Baker, Le'Veon Bell and Larry Caper. If you don't want to listen to former Lions president/GM Matt Millen call the game on ABC, and aren't partisan enough to enjoy either radio broadcast — MSU's Jim Miller and George Blaha on WJR-AM (760), or U-M's Jim Brandstatter and Frank Beckmann on WOMC-FM (104.3) — then feel free to log on here for unbiased analysis. Or if you're a bit more partisan, and want to stop by with some trash talking, feel free to do that, as well.

Week 4 of the college football season sends me back to Spartan Stadium, where I'll be live chatting from Michigan State's noon game against an FCS (or I-AA) opponent in Northern Colorado. Join me a little before kickoff insight from my perch high above the field. It's a view that offensive coordinator Don Treadwell — who's filling in for head coach Mark Dantonio — won't have for once. In the absence of Dantonio, who suffered a mild heart attack after last Saturday's epic overtime gamble against Notre Dame, Treadwell will be on the sidelines for the game, running the Spartan ship.

Join me for a live chat from Michigan State's once-in-a-generation game in Detroit, when the Spartans (1-0) face Florida Atlantic (1-0) for a "road" game at Ford Field on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010.

By MATTHEW B. MOWERY
Of The Oakland Press
EAST LANSING — Le’Veon Bell stepped to the podium in the postgame press conference, flashed a shy smile and said quietly, “Uh, this is the first time I’ve ever done this, so ...”
Could’ve fooled most people who were at Spartan Stadium on Saturday to witness Bell’s debut in a Michigan State uniform, watching him become the first true freshman in program history to record a 100-yard game in his first game.
He looked like a seasoned veteran up until that point.
Filling in for Larry Caper, who was held out with a minor hand injury, Bell rumbled for 141 yards and two TDs on just 10 carries, pairing with Edwin Baker to give the Spartans a pair of 100-yard rushers in one game for the first time since 2006.
Michigan State had one back top 100 yards all of last year.
“I thought I had a pretty decent day today,” said the 6-foot-2, 230 pound Bell. “I always dreamed about something like this, you know? For my first time ever coming on a college field, it was just a great experience.”
The coaches decided to keep Caper — one of their two true freshman RBs from a year ago, along with Baker — out of the lineup as a precaution, letting Bell know as early as Tuesday that he’d get a good deal of work in the season opener against Western Michigan.
“I was real nervous,” said Bell, who admitted the early notice helped build the butterflies a bit. “My first play was actually on punts, so it wasn’t that bad. I was very nervous, once I came out there. Once I got that first hit, it drove all the butterflies away.”
He and Baker didn’t have a tremendously heavy workload — combining for just 27 carries — but they were murderously effective, helping the Spartans average 8 yards per carry, and 297 total rushing yards.
“We found a variety of run plays worked. Sometimes you get into a game, and only one play will be the one that works, and your other stuff doesn’t, and we found that we could bounce from inside zone, to outside zone, to gap runs. And it was all working. Which is good, to know that we can be multiple in the run game, and keep defenses on their toes, which will help going forward,” said MSU quarterback Kirk Cousins. “If we run the ball like we did today, my job will be very easy this year.”
Everyone knew about the Oak Park graduate, Baker, who’d led the Spartans in rushing four of the last seven games last year, after the coaches had flirted with redshirting him. But Bell could become a household name just as quickly.
Coaches had been gushing about him for awhile.
“I think he’s been a pleasant surprise, as far back as the spring. When he enrolled early last spring, he immediately got the attention of the coaches, as well as his teammates, in just his natural ability,” MSU offensive coordinator Don Treadwell said. “No. 1, he has the size you’d like for a Big Ten back, but the certain things he has that we call intangibles — as you all know, you can only coach them so far — and he exhibited those out there today. He has great vision for a running back. He has excellent feet for a guy his size.
“Obviously, we’re very excited about him. We think the sky’s the limit, as we keep moving forward.”
As the staff moves forward, it will have to figure out how to sort out what’s becoming a logjam at running back again.
Despite several other players moving in and out of the rotation throughout last season, Bell and Caper were the primary workhorses as true freshmen. Bell would make a third wheel for this season. And diminutive-yet-speedy Nick Hill, from Chelsea, is another freshman who may be able to carve himself out a spot in the playing group.
That gives Treadwell and the offensive coaches the task of sorting out who will get the carries.
“One thing, if want to say you have a stable, you want to have them at running back, because there’s a lot of wear and tear in the Big Ten, with the amount of games that we play,” Treadwell said. “If anything, it can be a good problem to have enough backs to carry the load for us this year.”



Rouse done for season
Head coach Mark Dantonio announced Saturday that fullback Josh Rouse, who left the game under his own power, would be out for the season with a neck injury. Dantonio said that Rouse would have surgery on a vertebra in his neck later Saturday night.
“It was an emotional thing, I think, for our football team at halftime,” Dantonio said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Josh at this point.”

EAST LANSING — Some stories grow more impressive (or embellished) with each retelling.

Such is the case with Jon Misch’s second-most famous stint on the piano.

While the Michigan State linebacker became a YouTube sensation with his rendition of a Chopin number during the talent show during bowl week in 2007, it’s not the first time he’s wowed people as a concert pianist.

While still in high school at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s — in fact, on the same day he helped lead the Eaglets to a district football title — the Waterford native volunteered to become an emergency fill-in on the piano, and save a wedding scheduled that afternoon for the chapel on the Orchard Lake campus. One of Misch’s teammmates happened across the tearful bride, who explained that her wedding couldn’t start until the pianist she’d hired showed up. There was one easy solution.

“I got a call from one of my captains, and he was like, ‘Hey, Misch. They’re having a wedding here, and the pianist didn’t show up. If you could come and play for them, I bet they’d appreciate it,’ ”

Misch remembered. “So I came over, and was like ‘Hey, I heard your pianist didn’t show up, and I’d like to play for you, if you want.’ ... I’d played for weddings before, so I put together a regular repertoire for a wedding, and they paid me $100.”

That’s where the story has started to become urban legend. Yes, Misch was still in uniform, and hadn’t showered yet — “I was all covered in dirt and everything,” he said. “It was funny.”

But some parts of the story have grown in to tall tale proportions.

“I’ve only told (the story) a few times, but now it’s gotten misconstrued a little bit, because now they’re saying ‘He came in, and he played everything they asked him to, for free. Yadda, yadda, yadda,’ ” Misch said. “I didn’t ask for any money, but they did pay me. Don’t let anybody tell you that I didn’t.”

 

Join me on Saturday, Sept. 4, as the Michigan State Spartans open the season against one of the state's three Mid-American Conference teams, the Western Michigan Broncos. Kickoff is at noon, so we'll be up and running by 11:45 a.m.

Michigan State head football coach Mark Dantonio spoke Tuesday morning at media day, outlining expectations for his fourth season at the helm of the Spartans. Even though his team is coming off a 6-7 season — marred after the fact by the distraction of an off-campus altercation involving his players — Dantonio likes the chemistry of this year's squad, and has no problems with his team dreaming of roses.

What's been long rumored is now fact.

MSU and Tom Izzo announced Tuesday night that they've parted ways with talented-yet-undermotivated guard Chris Allen.

"It's been no secret that Chris Allen's been in a tenuous position since the spring. There were multiple obligations that Chris had to meet in order to return for his senior season," Izzo said in a press release. "While he did make progress through the summer, he has failed to meet all the obligations and will not be a part of our program this fall."

The Georgia native started 32 games in his three-year Spartan career, including 27 a year ago, when he averaged 8.2 points per game, and was MSU's best 3-point option. With one year of eligibility remaining, it's probable that Allen will transfer to another Division I school, sit out a season, then finish his eligibility.

That's exactly what Izzo's release suggested.

"I know he's going to be a great player. He deserves another chance to play basketball somewhere, but it's in everyone's interest that it be somewhere other than Michigan State," the coach's statement said. "Like every player, he has to mature a little bit. I think a year away from the game will be beneficial for his development as a person and a player."

Allen was part of the uber-talented backcourt with roommates Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers, but drew Izzo's ire (and a suspension) on the eve of this spring's Big Ten Tournament. All three had their run-ins with Izzo, but Allen's status remained the haziest, even as he tried to repair the relationship with his coach and teammates this summer.

It's unclear what the last straw was, but the player didn't seem to blame anyone but himself.

"Coach was straight-forward with me about what I needed to do to remain a part of the team," Allen said in the same press release. "Unfortunately, I didn't meet all the obligations. I have enjoyed my time at Michigan State and I appreciate all the support from my fans, and everyone associated with the program. It's unfortunate things didn't work out, but I'm leaving on good terms with my teammates and coaches."

The Michigan State Spartans locked up one of the stars of their camp from last week, getting a verbal commitment from Windsor (Ontario) WF Herman safety Arjen Colquhoun on Monday, giving the 2011 class a round 10 members.

Unrated by Rivals.com, but a two-star prospect according to Scout.com, Colquhoun is a lanky 6-foot-1, 180-pound defensive back/wide receiver who reportedly ran a sub-4.5-second 40-yard dash at the MSU camp, standing out with his ball skills. The multi-sport star also returns kicks.

While there is obviously a quality (not to mention rules) difference between high school football in Canada and the U.S., WF Herman has produced a couple of quality DBs in the past: current Duke CB Chris Rwabukamba and St. Louis Rams safety O.J. Atogwe.

Dwaun Anderson got to live his dream when the junior guided Suttons Bay to the Class C finals at Breslin Center in March.


"I knew as we got further into the tournament, I was going to have to step my game up," Anderson told the Traverse City Record Eagle after a 30-point, 13-rebound performance in a quarterfinal win over Rudyard. "I just tried to turn it on. It's been my goal (to play at the Breslin Center) since I was young and first started watching high school basketball."


Now, Anderson has figured out a way to be able to play at Breslin Center a lot more, as the high-flying, 6-foot-3 shooting guard committed to the Spartans on Wednesday, giving MSU a pair of top-rated shooting guards in the 2011 class. Detroit Southeastern's four-star guard, Brandan Kearney, has been committed since November.


Anderson averaged 20.6 points and 10.7 rebounds in the final three games of the spring for the Norse, which culminated in a 59-43 loss to Melvindale ABT in the Class C championship game.

Farmington Hills native Jeff Petry apparently is well liked by a LOT of people.

Named Wednesday to the All-CCHA Second Team by a vote of the league's coaches — along with two of his Michigan State teammates — the Orchard Lake St. Mary's graduate is far better appreciated by the fans. The son of former Detroit Tigers pitcher Dan Petry, the junior defenseman was among the leaders in the first phase of fan voting for the Hobey Baker Award, which closed on Sunday.

Through the end of February, Petry had ranked third with 7,539 votes, behind only Union forward Mario-Valery Trabucco and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute defenseman Dan Ringwald, but the MSU product was not among the top five vote-getters announced Monday. Results from the initial phase of fan voting will be combined with ballots from college hockey's coaches to determine the top 10 finalists for college hockey's version of the Heisman Trophy. That list, due out March 18, will kick off the second phase of fan voting, helping narrow the field down to a hat trick of the final three candidates.

The Hobey Baker winner will be announced April 9 at the Frozen Four tournament, which will be held at Ford Field in Detroit this year.

Petry has appeared in every game the Spartans have played in his three-year career, earning All-CCHA Freshman Team honors, then preseason All-CCHA Second Team honors last year. MSU junior forward Corey Tropp, the league's top power-play producer, and sophomore goalie Drew Palmisano, who was third in CCHA play in goals-against average (2.21), were also honored on the Second Team.

Ferris State defenseman Zach Redmond, who tied for the league lead in goals scored by a defenseman, also made the Second Team, while Northern Michigan juniors Mark Olver and Erik Gustafsson were among those who earned First Team honors.

In his heart of hearts, Mark Dantonio’s preferred style is to get a lead, then take the air out of the ball, and play keep-away.
It’s his modus operandi, on the field and off.

You can see that from the way the Michigan State coaching staff attacked recruiting this year— they gathered in a bunch of early commitments from big-time players, then slowed everything down to a crawl, and held on to those recruits for dear life.

It’s how the Spartans have scored classes in the upper echelon of the Big Ten each of the past two recruiting cycles.

And it’s why — despite all the speculation that losing ace recruiter Dan Enos to the head coaching job at Central Michigan — there was barely a hiccup in the Spartans’ recruiting efforts: Two-thirds of MSU’s 21-member class were already committed weeks before last season’s fall camp even started, and months before Enos’ January hiring at CMU.

In a two-week span in June alone, the Spartans picked up commitments from four players — led by five-star stud DE/LB William Gholston — who’d make or break a recruiting class for any Big Ten team.

From there on out, it was just addition without subtraction.

“None of them decommitted, and none of them went on visits to other schools. In a day and age where you see people flip-flopping a lot, that’s a statement in itself,” Dantonio said at Wednesday’s National Signing Day news conference at MSU’s Skandalaris Center. “William and Max (Bullough) committed last summer, and I think it showed a certain amount of maturity to stay a Spartan.”

Of specific importance was holding onto Gholston, the consensus best player in the state, and one of the most coveted prizes in the nation. For his part, the 6-foot-7, 235-pound Julian Peterson clone committed to the Spartans on June 16 — a day after four-star corner Mylan Hicks — and never wavered.

“He had opportunities, for sure. But I think he looked at the impact he could have on this state in general, as a young man, not just as a football player, and I think he always returned to where he started. What I do with all recruits — why we don’t have a lot of decommits — I let them look into their hearts, and if you have something in your heart, it grows,” Dantonio said.

“When he did make the decision, it was without pressure and without coercion. When you sell yourself on something, he began to sell other people. Every time he’d be here, he’d be talking to other recruits about coming to Michigan State, and he’d be answering his own questions there.”

Grabbing Gholston and Hicks, along with the state’s best drop-back quarterback for the second year in a row — this time Saline’s Joe Boisture, on the heels of Midland’s Andrew Maxwell a year ago — combined with Bullough, the legacy linebacker, and Chelsea scoring machine Nick Hill, allowed the Spartans to win the offseason in-state battle for Michigan again in 2010.
Couple that with back-to-back wins over Michigan on the field for the first time more than 40 years, and everything should be coming up roses for the Spartans, right?

Well, there was that messy little fight the day after the season-ending banquet, one that’s seen charges or inquiries into 14 different MSU players, and forced several of them to leave the program.

Couple that with a 6-7 season that included an embarrassing loss to a Mid-American Conference team, and a continual inability to carry out Dantonio’s game-plan of running the ball and playing stout defense — it’s no surprise that the Spartans’ recruits were inordinately slanted toward certain areas. No one could have been unhappier with last year’s pass-happy offense and porous defense than Dantonio.

By recruiting four defensive backs (to replace five graduated DBs), three linebackers, two defensive ends and a defensive tackle, the Spartans brought in almost an entire starting defensive unit to fix the latter of those flaws.

Don’t be surprised if a lot of those defenders see the field early and often.

“There’s a learning curve, but looking at the film, watching them play, I can tell you they have an opportunity to play at this level,” Dantonio admitted. “Every class, we’ve had six or seven players play as true freshmen.”

The Spartans also addressed the running game, adding three powerful offensive linemen from Dantonio’s native land of Ohio, a 230-pound power running back (Le’Veon Bell), a true fullback (Novi Detroit Catholic Central’s Niko Palazeti) and a slew of other athletes who can — and will — run the ball.

“There are opportunities. We have young freshmen (Larry Caper and Oak Park’s Edwin Baker) there right now. I really don’t care who we hand the ball to, as long as they hold onto it, and move forward,” Dantonio admitted.

Recruiting season over, it remains to be seen if the Spartans will take the momentum from back to back solid recruiting classes, and back-to-back wins over rival Michigan, and continue to move forward.

Or if they fail to hold onto the ball.

When asked at his introductory news conference if he'd bring along any Michigan State recruits — likely by an overzealous (or hopeful) Central Michigan fan — new Chippewa head coach Dan Enos ripped off a quick response: "I don't recruit other people's commits."

He did, however, qualify that he "had a good idea where all the uncommitted players were."

After only three full weeks on the job Enos has proven that to be more than true.

While coaches at programs like MSU, where Enos helped assemble a star-studded list of commitments, and U-M, where Rich Rodriguez is recruiting for his life, the last 48 hours before Signing Day are just for polishing a largely settled assemblage of talent, and maybe adding a cherry on top, it's different for a guy like Enos. Battling attrition the whole way — CMU's top-ranked recruit, Montague QB Cody Kater, decommitted, along with Southfield WR Montrel Robinson and Ohio ATH Dwight Macon — Enos has more than held the ship together for this year's recruiting. He's scrapped to find adequate replacements for those players who were headed there more for the coach than the school (and now are gone), plus added a few cherry pick-ups of his own.

Since taking the reins of the CMU program on Jan. 12, Enos has picked up five new commitments, three of them in the last five days. Novi Detroit Catholic Central ILB Michael Kinville — a tackling machine who anchored the Shamrocks' state-championship defense — signed on last Thursday, followed by speedy Grand Rapids JC cornerback Anthony Hollis on Sunday, and Lancaster (Pa.) Catholic QB Kyle Smith on Monday. While Kater led Montague to two state titles, the pro-style Smith hails from the cradle of QBs — Western Pennsylvania — and finished as the state's career record-holder for pass yards and TDs, ahead of the state's luminary alumni like Joe Montana. (Not a bad addition, when you're trying to replace a record-setting QB like Dan LeFevour, who's on his way to the NFL after finishing as the Offensive MVP in the Senior Bowl over the weekend).

Those three added to a pair of earlier commits brought in by Enos: Inkster WR Deon Butler (who joins teammate Johnathan Taylor in heading to Mount Pleasant) and safety Avery Cunningham of Winton Woods HS in Cincinnati.

The quintet of new additions gives CMU 20 potential signees, heading into Wednesday's Signing Day festivities.

Enos' old employer, Michigan State, had been stuck on 20 since adding two-star DB Darqueze Dennard from Georgia midweek last week, but tacked on one more Monday, getting a commitment from Kinville's Shamrock teammate Niko Palazeti, Catholic Central's battering-ram running back.

Michigan has been quiet for a week, as well, holding out hope of adding one or more of three four-star defensive backs to a class that already has 26 bodies in it. U-M is waiting for last-minute decisions from S Sean Parker, CB Rashad Knight and S Demar Dorsey to round out a class that started with skill-position players on offense, and has finished strong with defensive quality and quantity.

UPDATE: Knight chose Rutgers over Michigan early Tuesday morning.

Eastern Michigan added a third OL to its still-small class of reported commits, nabbing Lincoln Hansen from Cornhusker country in Omaha, Neb., on Monday.

For those interested in all things recruiting — and that's probably you, if you've gotten this far in this post — the Big Ten Network will be airing a 90-minute show, starting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

Check The Oakland Press print edition on Thursday for a full list of all the local signees, as well as who officially signed on with each of Michigan's five Division I-A programs, and check back on this blog for full analysis in the days to follow.

There's no mistaking the weird little love-hate triangle between the football programs at Michigan State, Cincinnati and Central Michigan.

It started with Mark Dantonio leaving Cincy to coach at MSU. Spurned by MSU in its coaching search, Brian Kelly went from CMU to replace Dantonio at Cincinnati. When Kelly left Cincy for Notre Dame before the Bearcats' bowl game this year, the Cincinnati hierarchy again robbed CMU, grabbing Butch Jones as Kelly's replacement. CMU, in turn, took Dan Enos — who'd been a Dantonio assistant at Cincy, then MSU — as its new head coach.

And it hasn't stopped with just coaches.

First there was the whole tiff about Trevor Anderson's transfer from Cincy to MSU, to follow Dantonio, when Kelly showed his stubborn side, to get even with MSU.

Now defensive end Jibreel Black, a Cincinnati native, has started the triangle spinning again. He initially committed to his hometown Bearcats, then re-opened his recruitment when Kelly left to coach in South Bend. Black took a recruiting visit to MSU two weekends ago, appeared to recommit to UC, then took a visit to Ann Arbor this past weekend, giving a verbal to the Wolverines after the weekend. Since Black had initially given a verbal to Indiana, then switched to Cincinnati, and now U-M, it's fair to say it's probably not a done deal until he actually inks a National Letter of Intent on Feb. 3.

While the numbers for U-M's class went up with the addition of the three-star recruit, CMU's went down over the weekend, when one of its key commits — Montague QB Cody Kater — decided to renege on his earlier statements that he'd stick with CMU. Instead, he chose to follow Jones to Cincinnati, giving the Bearcats a verbal commitment on Sunday.

He'll hardly be the lone Michigander on the Bearcats' roster next year. After leaving CMU, Kelly kept the pipelines open to Southeast Michigan (much to the chagrin of Cincinnati-area prep coaches), nabbing players like Marine City QB Brendon Kay by continuing to work the contacts he'd made over the years as he built Grand Valley and then Central.

Last year's roster had a dozen players from Michigan on it, including a slew from suburban Detroit. Safety Aaron Webster (Birmingham Groves) was the lone returning starter on defense to start the historic season, while Southfield-Lathrup grad Chris Jurek was the starting center. A year earlier, John Goebel (Milford/Birmingham Brother Rice) led the Bearcats in rushing TDs. It's almost a given that Jones will continue to pillage Michigan to supplement to the fertile recruiting ground he now finds himself in.

Outside the drama, Michigan State also added to its strong recruiting class, nabbing three-star DT Anthony White from Fort Scott, Kan., while Western Michigan continued to add Florida players, with West Palm Beach safety Johnnie Simon.

It's not uncommon for two teams to come out of a single game with a huge win at this point in January.

With big-time football recruits often sitting court-side, key basketball match-ups take on double importance as the Feb. 3 signing day gets closer.

Both U-M and MSU walked off the court with huge weekend hoops wins — MSU won a first-place showdown with Illinois Saturday, while U-M got a non-conference upset by knocking off No. 15 UConn on Sunday — but the two schools' football teams didn't leave the first recruiting weekend of the year empty, either.

• Mark Dantonio and the Spartans hosted a baker's dozen recruits for the weekend, and landed a verbal commitment from three-star linebacker Justin Wilson from Western High School in Davie, Fla.

Six more of the visitors were players who had already committed to MSU, which has the 34th-ranked class so far, according to Rivals.com. The Spartans lost out on two more of their weekend visitors — three-star Cinncinnati Wyoming DE Jibreel Black chose to stay in town, committing to the Bearcats, while Warren, Ohio, DB Mike Dorsey gave a verbal to West Virginia — MSU is still in the running for the final three players who came to East Lansing. Still uncommitted are a trio of three-star players: OL Alex Lewis, from Phoenix (offers from Air Force, Colorado, MSU and UNLV), OL Eric Franklin, of Youngstown, Ohio, Cardinal Mooney (Pitt, MSU, Purdue) and Chicago St. Rita DT Bruce Gaston Jr. (Purdue, MSU, Wisconsin).

Three more players are slated to come to East Lansing this weekend, including: Westland John Glenn ATH Jeremy Langford (already a verbal commit to MSU), Buford, Ga., DT Jerome Davis and DE Rashad Frazier of Middletown, Ohio.

• U-M had 10 players in for official visits this past weekend, and came away with a verbal commitment from Davion Rogers, a three-star linebacker from Warren (Ohio) Harding, who changed his choice Sunday from West Virginia to U-M. He joins high school teammate D.J. Williamson in the 2010 class for the Wolverines, which is ranked No. 19 by Rivals.com.

A day later, another weekend visitor — three-star linebacker Jake Ryan of Westlake (Ohio) St. Ignatius — gave his verbal to the Wolverines.

Bigger than those two grabs — which gives U-M four incoming linebackers and 13 of 26 commits (not counting those listed as athletes) on defense — was the news that the jewel of Rich Rodriguez's recruiting class, Inkster QB Devin Gardner was set to start classes on Tuesday as an early enrollee. Along with six other early enrollees, Gardner will have a leg up on the rest of the recruiting class, giving the nation's top dual-threat QB recruit a shot to truly compete for playing time, come the fall. While that's key at a position that's been in turmoil since Rodriguez hit Ann Arbor, it's just as important for another reason. It finally puts to rest all the rumors that Gardner, who committed last April, might be wavering on his choice, after another shaky U-M season on the field in the fall.

“I start on Tuesday,” Gardner told AnnArbor.com's David Birkett after the Michigan-UConn basketball game. “I don’t know what the holdup was, but it finally got done.”

• Western Michigan was the only one of the state's other three Division I schools to land a commitment after the weekend's visits. The Broncos added three-star RB Dareyon Chance of Ft. Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons to their class (No. 95-ranked class by Rivals) of 18. Coming off a disappointing, third-place finish in the Mid-American Conference's West Division, the Broncos have continued to depend on a haul of out-state recruits. Only four of WMU's 18 commits are from Michigan, headlined by Grand Rapids Junior College OT Marcus Cann.

• Eastern Michigan's winless season in its first year under former U-M defensive coordinator Ron English hasn't done anything to help recruiting, as the Eagles only had six known commits entering the weekend, according to Rivals. EMU did get some good news Monday, when Bellwood (Ill.) Proviso West WR Julius Shelby gave the Eagles a seventh commit on Rivals' list. Line coach Kurt Anderson has been the primary recruiter for more than half the Eagles' recruits so far, the former U-M lineman drawing on his ties in Illinois to bring in four players from his home state.

• On the job as CMU's head coach for just a little over a week, Dan Enos likely hasn't had time to do anything other than select his staff and try to hold onto CMU's current class. The most important of those committed players — QB Cody Kater, who led Montague to back-to-back MHSAA Division 6 titles — has initially said he's staying put. If the three-star QB — who will be in the running to replace record-setting Dan LeFevour — does sign with CMU, it'll be a testament to the continuing work of Enos and Max Glowacki, who was retained as the Chippewas' recruiting coordinator.

CMU's most recent additions were a pair of two-star teammates from Miami Southridge, ATH Jermaine Kelson and WR Lavaughn Whigham, giving No. 23-ranked CMU a class of 19, which is ranked No. 90 by Rivals. More important to CMU, however, is the fact that 12 of those players are in-state recruits. Like Butch Jones before him, it was expected that Enos' contract would have an incentive clause that pays a bonus every year that more than 60 percent of the CMU roster is from Michigan.

If you were one of the many Michigan State fans who saw the interminable coverage of the Mike Leach saga this week, culminating in the quirky Texas Tech coach getting canned just days before Saturday's Alamo Bowl match-up with the Spartans, and you thought "Hmmm, maybe that will help," don't worry. You weren't alone.

But you also aren't truly thinking it through. Yes, the glare of the spotlight has been squarely turned on the Red Raiders this week — and off the Spartans and their own off-the-field, suspension-filled fiasco. And yes, that can't be comfortable for Tech players and faithful, any more than it was for State fans a month ago.

Even throwing out the obvious assertion that teams in the midst of a coaching upheaval tend to rally around an interim coach — hello, Bobby Williams — there's still not a whole lot of logic to say that the Spartans now have a better chance to beat the pass-happy Red Raiders.

Leach's firing won't make the Spartans be able to tackle any better. It won't make MSU able to rush the passer any better. And, more than likely, it won't make MSU's defense able to create turnovers any better.

In short, Leach's firing really doesn't do anything to change all — or any — of the negatives that made MSU an underdog in this game in the first place.

Sophomore safety Trenton Robinson, who started all 12 games at safety for the Spartans, was asked Monday about the biggest challenge facing Texas Tech.

"Definitely the passing game. The defensive backs are going to have to step up this week because they throw the ball all the time," the sophomore said. "We haven't played a team that passes the ball this much. It will give us a chance to make plays on the ball. Every defensive back in the country loves to face a team that throws because you get a chance to make plays."

The Spartan DBs may relish the challenge, but they haven't answered the bell against spread offenses so far this year.

Through the regular season, MSU ranked dead last in the Big Ten in pass defense (251.6 yards per game), red zone efficiency defense and passing TDs allowed (29), and one spot removed from last in pass efficiency defense (139.2). The Spartans were last in the nation in interceptions (5), next-to-last in red zone defense, and 103rd out of 120 Division I teams in pass defense.

Kinda scary numbers when you're going against the nation's No. 2 pass offense, one that rips off 381 pass yards and 37 points per game, despite losing record-setting QB Graham Harrell and first-round pick Michael Crabtree at receiver. Junior Taylor Potts was fourth-best in the nation in yards per game, throwing for 3,068 yards in just 11 games. And lest you think it's just Potts, backup Steven Sheffield threw for 490 yards and seven TDs in a 66-14 demolition of Kansas State when Potts was injured.

And while the Spartans have faced some pretty good quarterbacks already this season, they haven't exactly had stellar games against them. Five players — Central Michigan's Dan LeFevour (328), Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen (300), Minnesota's Adam Weber (416), Purdue's Joey Elliott (373) and Penn State's Darryl Clark (310) all topped the 300-yard plateau against the Spartan secondary this season.

MSU was 1-4 in those games.

Granted, MSU held opposing QBs below 200 yards four times, as well, but two of those were against overmatched opponents — Montana State and Western Michigan (you could throw Illinois in there, as well, if you wanted). In another of those games, the Spartans held Iowa's Ricky Stanzi to 138 yards and a single score — but that lone score came as time expired in the heart-rending, 15-13 loss in prime time.

"We have to be able to control the football, but more importantly, we have to be able to score," MSU coach Mark Dantonio said. "We have to be able to control the tempo of the game somewhat and limit their opportunities. Texas Tech has a very explosive offense, averaging 380 yards passing per game. It's a team that will take some chances, including going for it on fourth down at times. So it's going to be important for us to keep the time of possession in our favor, but that's easier said than done."

While the Spartans are 5-0 this season when winning the time-of-possession battle (and 15-3 under Dantonio) those wins came against Montana State, Michigan, Illinois, Northwestern and Western Michigan.

Not exactly a who's-who of passing prowess.

Glass-half-full thinking says this could potentially be a shootout, like the 42-34 loss to Minnesota, where Gophers QB Weber went off for a Big Ten season-best 416 yards and 5 TDs. Glass-half-empty says it may be more like the disappointing 42-14 loss to Penn State at the end of the regular season, where Clark got three of his four TD passes in a six-minute span of the third quarter, allowing the Nittany Lions to put the Spartans away early.