Spartans Host Annual Bus Tour this Weekend, Football Talent in Tow
The annual bus tour of Ted Ginn, Sr., with loads of talent onboard, swings through East Lansing this weekend, and the Michigan State coaching staff will get a chance to meet and greet a couple of particularly intriguing recruits
Ginn, head coach of a little football factory named Glenville High School, packs players from his and other schools on a charter bus and makes pit stops at various college campuses throughout the Midwest, bringing the hard working youngsters he travels with much deserved recognition and exposure.
One player making the trip north to Spartan country will be 6-foot-3, 210 pound Jayrone Elliott, the latest defensive end prospect out of Glenville. Elliott spoke with Spartan Nation about coming to MSU this Saturday.
"I'm real excited, because coach Narduzzi and coach Dantonio have been wanting to get me down there for junior day, and I haven’t been down there because we missed a couple of camps," Elliott said of the Spartan defensive coordinator and head coach, respectively. "But I'm excited about getting down there and working out for (defensive line) coach (Ted) Gill."
The Spartan coaching staff has made an impression on Elliott.
"They're just real laid back and cool. You can talk to them. It's not just straight football with them," Elliott said. He singled out coach Gill in particular. "When I met coach Gill, like two years ago, he wasn't even recruiting me," Elliott said. "We just sat down and talked about what he's been through and what I'm going through and everything, and he showed me some real focal points in life."
Elliott has the Spartans on his final list, but says he's not worried about pulling the trigger for a school on anyone else's timeline. Official visits will come this fall, and Elliott should be back visiting East Lansing.
Elliott’s teammate, cornerback Christian Bryant (5-foot-10, 175 pounds), is a heavily recruited athlete with a couple dozen scholarship offers. One of the top corner prospects in the Midwest and nation, Bryant will see what MSU has to offer after missing a chance to visit earlier this month.
"We're probably going to get down there July 11 for their camp so I can see the facilities and more of the coaches and everything," Bryant said.
The potential good news for MSU with Bryant is that he likes the fact that East Lansing is only a few short hours away. Against competition from the SEC, ACC, Pac 10 and others, any advantage a program can manage could make the difference in landing a premier corner. And MSU is just a short car ride away, nothing an entourage can’t handle.
"That's a big deal for me," said Bryant, a player with offers from major programs scattered throughout the country. "My family could come down anytime they want, just four hours, that's really not a big deal for them, so that's pretty close to home."
