College Football

Michigan State Recruiting: 2018 class will be Mark Dantonio's best

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:23 p.m. ET

Fansided, Connor Muldowney/FanSided via Spartan Avenue

Mark Dantonio’s 2018 Michigan State recruiting class will be his best and it’s already off to a great start.

In a world of ‘what have you done for me lately?’, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio is looked at as a coach trending in the wrong direction.

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“He’s done. His best days are behind him. He had his run, but the Big Ten is Michigan and Ohio State’s now.”

All of those notions have been uttered throughout the Midwest after a 3-9 season for Michigan State and all Coach D can do is sit back and listen.

Some want him gone, some want him to make changes, but he knows firsthand how successful the current staff has been and why the doomsday fans will disappear the second he turns things around in 2017.

Dantonio has also been knocked for his inability to recruit, but even after a season in which the Spartans had just three victories, he lost no recruits to de-commitment. He has even added three-star athlete Connor Heyward and four-star linebacker Antjuan Simmons since the conclusion of the season to the 2017 class.

We hear all about how poor the 2017 recruiting class is for Michigan State, but it’s ranked as high as No. 18 by Scout and around the 25-ish mark, compositely.

Not many coaches can go 3-9 and have a similar recruiting class to the one he had just two seasons ago. Moreover, not many coaches can get off to a red-hot start to the 2018 class when no on-field improvements have been proven just yet for 2017.

However, Dantonio reeled in four-star wide out Joseph Scates from Ohio on Tuesday, ranked the No. 155 prospect in the class. The Spartans already had a pledge from the No. 212 prospect in 2018, Xavier Henderson, as well.

Two players committed, two top-250 stars. For a coach who ‘doesn’t recruit well’, Dantonio is doing a fantastic job of selling the program to future standouts.

This start to the 2018 class is a sign of things to come, though. There are plenty of big names that could be leaning green by next year’s National Signing Day such as Malik Vann, Michael Dowell, Micah Jones, L’Christian Smith and Dallas Gant, among others, and it will show just what happens when you doubt Dantonio.

Bold prediction: Michigan State’s 2018 recruiting class will be Mark Dantonio’s best and rank in the top-15.