DE Jalen Thompson on Why He Stayed With Spartans

After a strong freshman season, Michigan State defensive end Jalen Thompson drew plenty of interest from outside programs but chose to remain a Spartan...

A former four-star prospect and Top-300 recruit, there was a lot of excitement when Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech defensive lineman Jalen Thompson committed to and eventually signed with Michigan State in the Class of 2023.

Joining a defensive line that returned a high level of talent and added several pieces out of the transfer portal heading into last season, we didn't know how much of the talented freshman we would see a year ago in his true freshman season. However, due to a combination of injury troubles and Thompson's own obvious gifts, the freshman appeared in eight games for MSU in 2023.

Even in limited action as a rotational defensive tackle, it was clear that MSU had an excellent player on its hands. Thompson finished with 19 tackles, including 4.5 tackles for loss and two sacks, adding two pass breakups and a forced fumble.

“I would say, yeah. I didn’t expect it to happen as fast as it did, but when it happened, I was ready, I was prepared," Thompson said on getting an early opportunity to contribute with the Spartans.

However, this past offseason was a transitional one for MSU, as former head coach Mel Tucker was fired, and the majority of his coaching staff was dismissed, including Thompson's first D-line coach, Diron Reynolds. All that change and Thompson's success as a true freshman brought plenty of potential suitors for the Detroit native.

However, Thompson stuck true to the Spartans and remained in East Lansing for his sophomore year, choosing to give new head coach Jonathan Smith and a new staff a chance.

“I just felt like, when Coach Smith came in, he had good reviews," Thompson said. "Everybody said he was a good head coach, and when he came in he sat down with all the guys, talked with us one-on-one individually and he just told us to give him an opportunity. He came in trying to build trust. He did activities, stuff like that, and that made me feel like, okay, I’m going to give him the opportunity to be able to trust him.”

Thompson said that Smith and the new staff did a good job of letting the players recruited by the previous coaching staff know that they were wanted.

“Being able to spend one-on-one with our position coaches," Thompson said. "Any time you need to go talk to him you can go up there to go talk to him. There’s an open-door policy. Breaking us off into meeting all the other coaches as well, everybody being able to get to know each other. They came in right away knowing our name and everything. It just made you feel welcome.”

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