5 MSU Football Players Set To Break Out During Fall Camp
In this story:
Training camp for Michigan State football officially begins next Thursday.
MSU is hitting the reset button again this season with Pat Fitzgerald as head coach. He and his mostly new staff (with a few key retentions) brought in 32 new players from the transfer portal and have another 30 freshmen. That's 62 new players on a roster of 111. These five players are players who are primed to get on fans' radars during fall camp:
WR Charles Taplin
One key returning player is second-year wide receiver Charles Taplin. He was mostly an unknown on the roster last season, only appearing in Michigan State's final four games and making one catch for eight yards. Taplin was also a low-three-star recruit from Red Oak, Texas. He was the lowest-rated wide receiver the Spartans took in during the 2025 cycle, and he was actually the second-lowest-rated scholarship player.
Taplin is exceeding expectations, though. He was getting a lot of reps with the starters during April's spring game and is now a favorite to earn a starting role this fall. It's still a relatively open competition in the wide receiver room; a starting job is hardly a guarantee for Week 1 for anybody, and the competition stretching into the season wouldn't feel like a huge surprise.
TE Jayden Savoury
Another young returnee looking to make an impact is Jayden Savoury. The competition in the tight end room might be even more difficult to figure out than the wide receivers, which should open up chances for Savoury to play a lot more this year. He made one impressive catch against Boston College in 2025, but still only played 12 total offensive snaps.
Savoury has one of the bigger frames in the tight end room, standing at 6'5" and 253 pounds. There isn't much college experience to go off, but Savoury seems like he could eventually be an every-down tight end who threatens defenses as a vertical threat and as a blocker. He and Brennan Parachek seem like the two contenders for that every-down role, with Ferris State transfer Carson Gulker being another interesting option as a gadget player.
DT Derrick Simmons
MSU will absolutely be looking for a breakout season from defensive tackle Derrick Simmons (redshirt freshmen are becoming a theme here). He's a former 4-star recruit who also redshirted last fall and got 44 defensive snaps. The depth for Michigan State at defensive tackle is pretty thin. Most teams rotate three players at the position. MSU has Ben Roberts, Eli Coenen, and then Simmons. After that, there is hardly any in-game experience at all.
Simmons doesn't have that experience either, though. He just has another layer of expectations with his 4-star status. Simmons was a highly touted recruit for a reason, though, and he did it while playing smaller-school football in Michigan at Frankenmuth. The jump from high school to the Big Ten is steep enough, but it was even steeper for Simmons compared to most. Whether he's adjusted enough or not, Michigan State is going to be looking to him a lot this fall.
CB Tyran Chappell
Houston Christian transfer Tyran Chappell was one of the more sneaky-good portal additions for Michigan State this offseason. He had a breakout year last year at the FCS level, intercepting four passes and receiving First Team All-Southland honors. Chappell was still outside the top 1,500 transfer portal prospects this offseason on both 247Sports' and On3's rankings, even though he probably should have gotten a bump with his three remaining years of eligibility.
Chappell seemed to finish out the spring as MSU's No. 3 corner. He was getting first-team reps next to Iowa State transfer Tre Bell, but Charles Brantley was unavailable. That duo of Brantley and Bell feels pretty solid headed into camp, but that would still mean Chappell should get some meaningful snaps as the team's top reserve.
WR Rodney Bullard Jr.
Somehow, the NCAA still has not made its ruling on whether Rodney Bullard Jr. will be eligible or not for the 2026 season. So, all this is contingent on the NCAA ruling in Bullard's favor. If Bullard does get made eligible for the coming season, though, he's another contender to earn a starting role.
Bullard made five catches for 119 yards and a touchdown last season in his first year with MSU after transferring from Division II Valdosta State. Four catches, 102 yards, and the touchdown happened against Minnesota, which was, notably, Alessio Milivojevic's first start. Bullard's speed and potential big-play ability would make him an intriguing option in the pass game if he were to get an uptick in snaps.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
Follow jacobcotsonika