For anyone getting worked up about this... chill out. Legacy players commit to other schools. Is it annoying that it's to UM, yes.
At one point Kaden was ranked a very high as a OL recruit. That ranking has dropped every cycle since (see below). That said, he looks to be a solid OL prospect. And UM is projecting him at Center.
There's been a lot of talk about why MSU wasn't all-in in pursuing Kaden. And on paper, fans might think that his dad, as a Spartan, would have made this a lay-up.
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. Here's why.
Our OL coach is really looking for big and athletic OLs. The goal is to run no-huddle, spread, RPO stuff, less just maulers.
Kaden is 6-3 / 295, good size for a center, but not guard or tackle.
For perspective, the OL recruits/transfers from last year and targets for this year are listed at 6-8, 6-7, 6-7, 6-5, 6-5, 6-5, 6-5, 6-5, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 (OSU Transfer Center Tanner Miller). See a theme? 8/11 are 6-5 or taller.
This staff is willing to take a Plan B player now rather than waiting for Plan A to decide and missing on both. We got one OL yesterday in Justin Bell. Two other high school recruits are committing this week: Kaahaaina-Torres and Darius Afalava. I like our chances for both.
Tucker often swung for the fences with Plan A guys, without having Plan B's and C's lines up. When he missed the A, it was too late for the B's, so he settled for C's.
Conversely, this staff would rather have 3 good players locked in early. And can take big swings later in the cycle.
I also don’t think Kaden lied when he said MSU backed off once the Bluebloods got involved. Again, Tucker often stayed in the hunt with the big boys but finished second or third about 20 times. As Ricky Bobby said, "If you ain't first, you're last." This staff knows when a process is going to drag out. Getting into a pitch battle and NIL bidding war with the Miami, Georgia, Oregon, Bama, UM, and OSU's of the world isn't a fight you want to be in often.
NIL was rumoured to be high on Kaden's priority list. Smith seems to be more about players proving value before raising NIL. We also just signed 6 O-Lineman in the previous class. We didn't need to overpay or drag out this recruitment.
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