Mounting Bad News For MSU Football: Sixth Player Waves Goodbye in Three Weeks
The bye week has not been kind to Michigan State as the Spartans have continued to lose players to the NCAA transfer portal, with the latest being junior tight end Noah Davis.
Davis joins receivers Cam Chambers and Weston Bridges as players who have reportedly left the program via the transfer portal this week and also joins linebacker Brandon Bouyer-Randle and running backs Connor Heyward and La’Darius Jefferson, who entered the transfer portal earlier this season.
Spartan Nation confirmed Davis’ departure Friday evening.
With Davis now in the transfer portal that leaves just seven players (Joe Bachie, A.J. Arcuri, Naquan Jones, Matt Coghlin, Matt Allen, Mike Panasiuk and Luke Campbell) from Michigan State’s 2016 recruiting class who are still with the program. The Spartans’ 2016 class was made up of 20 players, but has since been decimated by the number of players lost to transfer (8) and players who were dismissed from the team because of legal trouble (4).
If the number of players Michigan State has lost to the transfer portal this year alone seems excessive, that's because it is. While the Spartans have lost six players already in 2019, which is far and away the most in the Big Ten with Maryland has the next most players lost with three. Iowa and Indiana have each lost two.
Before Michigan State began losing players, head coach Mark Dantonio told reporters that he didn’t expect to lose any players to the transfer portal, but didn’t rule out the possibility.
“I don't anticipate it, it may happen,” he said. “You know, I'm sure that today's society, anything's possible, I guess. But I've not heard of that yet, but I could see things happening like that as you go through the course of a year, and how you address it, you've got to get your young guys ready to play if something like that happens with a veteran guy.”
Spartan Nation is aware of at least four other members of the football team that are also considering the possibility of entering the transfer portal as well.
Michigan State is currently 4-3 on the season and had a bye week following last week’s 38-0 loss to Wisconsin. The Spartans will be back in action next Saturday to take on No. 8 Penn State at 3:30 at Spartan Stadium.
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