Spartans Offer Scholarship to WR Chase Collier

Michigan State Head Coach Jonathan Smith is looking to build out the Spartans' roster with under-the-radar players such as WR Chase Collier.

Since being hired, Michigan State Head Coach Jonathan Smith and his coaching staff have emphasized recruiting in the state of Florida and recruiting lesser-known players with potentially high upside. Both ideals were put to use with the scholarship offer MSU and Smith offered to unranked wide receiver Chase Collier of Jacksonville, Fla., which is yet another offer Smith has made to a player unranked by 247Sports. 

The 6’1, 170-pound wide receiver is another prospect in the 2025 recruiting class who may go under the radar on the national level, but not to Coach Smith, who is focusing much of his first few recruiting classes on players who are not currently highly ranked or ranked. 

However, Collier is slightly different from most of the other unranked and low-ranked players who have received an offer from the Spartans. Wide Receivers Coach Courtney Hawks and assistant Cordale Grundy were critical in Collier’s connection to MSU and the Spartans’ decision to offer him a scholarship officially.

Collier is currently a multi-sport athlete who excels on the track field. The speedy wide receiver’s athleticism is the type of talent MSU will need going forward. The Spartans coaching staff will depend heavily on the receiver’s natural talents in combination with their ability as a coaching staff to make him a better football player.

Although Collier has received over 13 scholarship offers, MSU is his first offer from a Power Five school. He has also received offers from Liberty, Tulane, UMass, and Appalachian State. Collier recently announced his scholarship offer from MSU on X.

“WHAT A DAY!!!” Collier said. “ I’m blessed to receive my first P5 from Michigan State University.”

Michigan State is at the starting line of a journey, not a sprint. With that in mind, Smith’s thought process of developing under-the-radar players with high upside is likely the most logical path back to national prominence for the Spartans. 

It won’t get MSU to where Smith hopes to get them overnight, but he’s recruiting with the program's long-term future in mind. College Football is constantly evolving. While Smith’s recruiting of lesser-known players may not equal instant success, anything can happen in college football. It will be much easier for teams to reach the College Football Playoffs as the playoff system is likely to continue to expand again in the future. Smith’s three—to four-year plan of developing overlooked talent could pay off down the road.

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