© Alex Martin/Journal and Courier / USA
Former Michigan State Football Commit Joins UConn via Transfer Portal
Former Purdue wide receiver TJ Sheffield decommitted from Michigan State last month and has now committed to UConn.
Michigan State football is expected to be active in the transfer portal this offseason.
The program took a big hit, however, when former Purdue wide receiver TJ Sheffield, who had committed to MSU in December, decommitted from MSU in March.
Sheffield has now agreed to join the Connecticut Huskies, he announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
In his five seasons at Purdue, Sheffield appeared in 45 games and registered 118 passes for over 1,200 yards and 11 touchdowns. Most of Sheffield’s production came during his last three seasons at Purdue. In 2022, he caught a career-high 46 passes and had a career-high 480 receiving yards.
He also caught five of his career 11 touchdowns in 2021, a career-high for Sheffield.
Purdue would hire a new head coach in 2023, but Sheffield posted comparable numbers to the previous seasons, registering 32 catches for 381 yards and two touchdowns. The Thompson’s Station, Tennessee native was a three-star prospect coming out of high school and was the 588th overall recruit in 2019. Sheffield’s ranking was based on the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average of all four major recruiting media companies.
Sheffield played high school football at Independence. He was a three-star prospect with the Eagles and the No. 588 overall recruit in the 2019 cycle. According to the On3 Industry Ranking, Sheffield was ranked a Top-100 WR and a top-20 player from Tennessee.
In 2022, Sheffield helped lead the Boilermakers to an 8-6 record, including a trip to the Big Ten title game, where they ultimately fell to Michigan.
Sheffield would have been a valuable asset for the Spartans as not only a receiver with years of college football experience but also a specialist, who returned 32 punts for 271 yards while at Purdue. He would have also added value with his familiarity with the Big Ten.
In what has become college football’s version of free agency, players decommitting before ever playing for a school will become more commonplace over time. The Spartans will need to continue aggressively pursuing talent in the transfer portal to get going in the right direction.
The Michigan State Spartan Football "Spring Showcase" will be held at the High Cathedral of the Spartan Nation, Spartan Stadium, on April 20, 2024, at 2 p.m.
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