Michigan State Football Top 30 Players: No. 21
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Somebody is going to have to take a step forward at wide receiver for Michigan State this year.
The Spartans don’t have a bunch of proven options at a position that is normally expected to be a strength each year. MSU will be seeking a leap out of Notre Dame transfer KK Smith. He’s at No. 21 on my top 30 players list for the 2026 football season.
State of the WR Room for Michigan State
Michigan State’s room of playmakers looks a lot different than last season’s. Top receiver Nick Marsh left in the transfer portal and is now at Indiana. Second-leading receiver Omari Kelly ran out of eligibility. Key backup Evan Boyd also transferred to Iowa State.
MSU’s top returning wideout is slot receiver Chrishon McCray. He was the Spartans’ starting slot receiver last year, making 24 catches for 330 yards and three touchdowns. The Spartans were actually fortunate just to keep him. McCray announced that he was planning to enter the portal on Dec. 31, 2025, but eventually withdrew from the portal on Jan. 6, 2026.
That production lost with Marsh and Kelly wasn’t wholly replaced in the transfer portal by MSU. Smith was one of three receivers the Spartans took from other schools. The others were Michigan transfer Fredrick Moore and Jackson State transfer Jameel Garder Jr. All three of them have not experienced being a full-time starter at the Power Four level before.
Smith seems like the most promising member of that group to become a starting-level contributor. That’s even though he was limited at times during the spring and didn’t participate in Michigan State’s “Spring Showcase” back in April.
Moore was the only portal receiver who was there. His day there was pretty quiet. Gardner was actually visiting MSU on a visit then, committing to the Spartans shortly thereafter as a late transfer portal pickup.
Gardner was the third wide receiver at Jackson State last year, totaling 482 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns in 2025. He was also once teammates with McCray at Kent State in 2022 and 2023. They both redshirted together in ‘22 before playing regularly the next year. McCray was the Golden Flashes’ top receiver; Gardner finished fourth.
The hope for Moore is almost certainly to get more involved in the offense than he was at Michigan. Moore made 15 catches for 160 yards and one touchdown during his time at UM. He only played in four games for the Wolverines, seeing very little offensive action, before leaving the team and announcing intentions to enter the portal.
Smith is also seeking a bigger role at his second school. He made 11 catches in his career at Notre Dame, totaling 161 total yards and two touchdowns. Smith appeared in 10 games for the Fighting Irish last season for a total of 107 offensive snaps. It was just a crowded offense ahead of him at Notre Dame. A fresh start in East Lansing with two years of eligibility remaining should do Smith some good.
Where Smith Fits at MSU
Chances are that Smith will mostly be either an X or a Z receiver for Michigan State. The 5’10” McCray at the slot still feels like the only sure thing for now. Smith could also move into the slot on occasion with a 6’0” and 180-pound frame.
Who MSU and wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins put at X is the question. That’s normally where teams put their best receivers. McCray would be my pick right now to end up being the Spartans’ leading receiver come April, but he’d be on the shorter side for someone there.
He’s capable of running deeper routes and making contested catches, but most of his catches will likely be in that short-to-intermediate range. His 13.8 yards per catch were actually more than Marsh (11.2) and Kelly (13.3) in 2025, but McCray’s routes seemed to be closer to the line of scrimmage back in April.
The main difference between the X receiver and the Z receiver is that the X is at the line of scrimmage, whereas the Z usually is a yard or two behind it. Being behind the LOS makes it a bit easier for the Z to avoid getting jammed up at the line of scrimmage, which means there is a level of physicality required to also be the X.
I think Smith looks more like a Z receiver right now. He’s got a pretty similar frame to Kelly (6’0”, 188 pounds), and that seems to be the place where he got a big portion of his snaps at Notre Dame. Smith doesn’t have the burning speed to consistently take tops off defenses, but he has enough to be dangerous when he gets the ball in the open field.
Someone with a bit more speed would fit better at X. That could be four-star freshman and track star Samson Gash. It could be redshirt freshman Charles Taplin. If given eligibility, Rodney Bullard Jr. would make sense.
Other Info Worth Knowing
Smith’s two career touchdowns both came last season. One was an 18-yard score against N.C. State, while the other went for 34 yards in a game vs. Navy. That first career touchdown against NCSU was pretty simple. The Wolfpack dialed up a Cover 0 blitz on third-and-long, leaving Smith 1-on-1 with a big cushion. He used all that room to operate and beat his defender with a pretty simple post route.
The touchdown against Navy had a few similarities. Smith was in the slot for his score against N.C. State, but he was really out wide during his second touchdown. This touchdown was also on a post route, though this time it broke to the left instead of the right. Smith beat his defender and caught this touchdown right in the back of the endzone.
Smith was a well-regarded three-star prospect coming out of high school. He finished ranked 546th overall in the class of 2023, according to the 247Sports Composite. Smith attended Rick Reedy High School in Frisco, Texas. He chose Notre Dame over Texas Tech.
Once Smith hit the portal, he wound up at 939th overall on 247Sports’ rankings. That’s the highest mark among the Spartans’ portal receivers.
Other Top 30 Articles
No. 30, WR Samson Gash | No. 29, WR Charles Taplin | No. 28, S Devin Vaught | No. 27, KR Kenneth Williams | No. 26, OL Luka Vincic | No. 25, OL Rakeem Johnson | No. 24, CB Tyran Chappell | No. 23, DL Derrick Simmons | No. 22, TE Carson Gulker
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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.
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