Michigan State lands a transfer portal addition at tight end
The transfer portal has been very kind to Michigan State. Today, the Spartans picked up a commitment from Illinois transfer, Daniel Barker.
Barker, a 6-foot-4, 250 pound tight end committed to Mel Tucker, tight ends coach, Ted Gilmore and the Spartans over the weekend and made it public with a tweet earlier today.
Barker originally had plans of testing out the NFL and the entering the NFL draft. After consideration, Barker decided to use a final year of college eligibility which ended with him with switching Big Ten schools and ending up a Spartan.
While at Illinois, Barker was one of the bright spots for the Illini. Barker had 64 catches for 827 yards and 11 touchdowns in his time in Champaign. Back in 2019, Barker scored the go-ahead touchdown in the final seconds against Michigan State in a game Illinois was down 28-3 and ended up winning 37-34 outscoring the Spartans 27-3 in the fourth quarter.
Michigan State has lost both Kameron Allen and Trenton Gillison to the transfer portal since the end of the season. That along with the loss of Connor Heyward made tight end a thin position for the Spartans heading into 2022. With Barker committed and Maliq Carr back for his sophomore season, the Spartans have two lethal pass catchers for Jay Johnson and the offense.
Barker was originally a three-star prospect out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Deerfield Beach High School in the class of 2018. Barker was ranked the 1,554th player in the class of 2018 and the 66th ranked tight end in 2018.