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Mark Dantonio and his staff have been hot on the recruiting trail as of late and have continued assembling a solid 2014 recruiting class for the Michigan State Spartans.
Dantonio and staff had a great week long stretch of recruiting, securing verbal commitments from four players in that short time period. While nothing is official until signing day, Dantonio has generally kept people on board once they decide to commit.
Dantonio has been throwing out all of the tricks in recruiting this season, trying anything and everything in an attempt to impress some of the top talent he is going after.
It paid off with the first commitment of the week from four-star cornerback Vayante Copeland out of Thurgood Marshall High School in Dayton, Ohio. Copeland is a big physical corner and fits the mold of a Mark Dantonio defensive back.
The next commitment came from unranked corner Jalen Watts-Jackson out of Orchard Lake St. Mary High School in Orchard Lake, Michigan. Watts-Jackson performed well enough at camp to impress the Spartan coaching staff, and he wasted no time committing. He is considered to be the most underrated prospect in the state of Michigan.
The last of the two commits both committed on the same day, just hours apart. The first was defensive tackle recruit David Beedle out of Clarkston High School in Clarkston, Michigan. Beedle has had a great summer of camp performances and has seen his stock skyrocket.
The second commit of the day and the last of the week for the Spartans was four-star running back Gerald Owens out of West Deptford High School in Westville, New Jersey. Owens is an absolute tank of a running back at 6’1, 240 pounds. Michigan State was one of the few schools recruiting him as running back, not a fullback, and that’s what sold him on the Spartans.
The good week of recruiting brought the Spartans to 12 total commits so far for the 2014 class and 17th overall class in the country according to Scout.com. It will be interesting to see if Dantonio and the Spartans can keep up the pace they are at with recruiting heading into the 2013 Big Ten football season.
Erik Sargent is a college football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Erik_Sargent, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
