Michigan State Recruiting: 4-star DE Deron Irving-Bey picks Michigan

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:04 a.m. ET

Fansided, Connor Muldowney/FanSided via Spartan Avenue

Michigan State recruiting misses on four-star in-state defensive end Deron Irving-Bey Monday as he commits to Michigan.

If you haven’t realized it by now, the Michigan State recruiting cycle for 2017 has been very quiet for the past couple of months. After landing guys such as Jordan Reid, Cody White and Hunter Rison, the Spartans have missed on a number of in-state targets. The latest to commit elsewhere is four-star defensive end Deron Irving-Bey.

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This one hurts the Spartans because they were in on him early on and it seemed like they were the program to beat for some time. However, after a poor season and some great recruiting by Jim Harbaugh and Co., he decided to pledge to the Wolverines.

You can’t knock what Michigan has been doing on the recruiting trail as the Wolverines have been keeping pace with the Alabamas and Ohio States of the college football landscape. Harbaugh has put in the work and he’s building something special at Michigan and Irving-Bey wanted to be part of that.

It was all but a done deal when he announced that he’d be making his decision on Monday after originally stating he’d wait until the Army All-American Game. Why? The spots in Michigan’s class were filling up fast and he likely wanted to make sure there was one for him.

Irving-Bey is the No. 186 overall player and fifth-best strong-side defensive end in the 2017 class, according to 247Sports. He’s also ranked the No. 4 prospect in Michigan. The Wolverines beat out schools such as MSU, Maryland and Tennessee.