yeah, but we didn't recruit Russo, who isn't exactly lighting it up. He has a strong arm but he throws a lot of picks. It's been 12 years since we signed a recruit from the E11.
Wikipedia has a good elite 11 page - some of the classes were better than others, obviously. I like Houser's film a lot but I'm not a recruiter so I'm probably only noticing the obvious (arm strength, accuracy downfield, etc). At the HS level it's prob not so much about reading the defense as it is making good throws to receivers that get open. If it is about reading defenses that's not something obvious from film when I'm watching.
What I can see is he's not really a playmaker dual threat guy or at least it's not obvious that he'll be able to extend plays against B1G defenses so my concerns are more about the team around him than they are about him at this point. at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we need to improve up front significantly. We also need to improve at WR - we've had some good possession receivers and some tough kids but seems like it's been awhile since we've had anything close to the groups we had during the Cook and Cousins eras.
WR should be a relative strength, I like the speedy shifty guys we have in Nailor and Reed. Ricky White was really missed when he was hurt last year, I think he can be the guy that can take the top off from defenses. Tre Mosely can be decent, but I think he's got a fairly low ceiling. And then we brought in a bunch of big possession receivers in Fitzpatrick from Louisville, and Maliq Carr ho has already moved to TE. Keon Coleman is an interesting prospect, he's both big and fast and has a swagger, wouldn't surprise me to see him ready to contribute right away, he's certainly physically ready for college. Kam Allen is the freshman who has been turning heads at TE, he should get a ton of reps this year.
The 2022 recruiting class is very interesting for WR. We're being extremely selective. Already have Tyrell Henry who we beat UM out for. Then we added Jaren Glover from Florida who's a possession guy. We have 1 spot left and we're being careful with it, we apparently have cooled on 4 star Antonio Gates Jr. and Kevin Thomas from Philadelphia who came into visit but was 4 inches shorter than his listed height.
Overall, there are some weapons there. RB is the definite strength of the team. It all comes down, like it always does, to O Line play. Kap has a history of turning around bad O Lines quickly, adding Horst as a transfer was big, it allows Jarvis to go back to guard. There are some pieces on the line, it's all up to Kap to get them to average to above average. He's got the rep as one of the best O Line coaches in the country, but ours was flat out putrid in 2019 and stayed bad in 2020, so we'll see. I think Russo wins the starting spot, he's got a ton of arm talent, just tried to fit too many passes into tight spaces at Temple and his WRs were awful.
Offense has been so bad for so long, it's time to show us some life. Coach Kap called it "putrid" last year, so at least he's a realist. He said it was the worst offense he's ever been involved in.
Kenny Walker has been blowing away the staff since he arrived on campus, he now owns most of the weight room records for MSU RBs, he's explosive and faster than advertised. Can't believe we got someone of his quality, he led the country in yards after contact in 2020. Most talented RB we've had since Le'Veon, hopefully he has some holes to run through. So people are excited about him, PFF rated him one of the top 4 returning RBs in the country.
