The Michigan State football program saw more personnel changes on the field this past weekend, with a couple subtractions and one addition.
It all began on Friday when cornerback/receiver Kaleel Gaines reportedly announced his decision to leave MSU and continue playing football at Arizona Western Junior College.
#Transfer Kaleel Gaines @leely_football 4merly @MSU_Football set to transfer to Arizona Western JuCo @AWCMatadors @tcminnick11 pic.twitter.com/Mze7tbsJy6
— JuCo Football Forer (@JuCoFootballACE) June 2, 2017
Gaines (6-foot, 194 pounds) is a former 3-star recruit from Frostproof, Florida. He redshirted as a freshman in 2015 and did not play in games last season. Gaines played in the team’s spring game in early April, taking snaps as a receiver after being on the team depth chart as a member of the secondary in his first two seasons.
[the_ad id=”80408″]
Less than 24 hours later on Saturday, another Spartan announced he was leaving the program to pursue playing at the JuCo level. This time, it was safety Kenney Lyke.
Safety Kenney Lyke leaving Michigan State football team https://t.co/ZlvD9mEuD0
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) June 4, 2017
Lyke (6-foot-2, 182 pounds) is another former 3-star chip according to 247Sports Composite out of Palatine, IL and was rated a top-20 safety from the Class of 2016. He played in three games last season for MSU as a true freshman.
Per ESPN, Lyke will be enrolling at Mississippi Delta Community College with the hopes of finishing his collegiate career at an SEC program.
The departures of Gaines and Lyke are the seventh and eighth players with college eligibility remaining to leave the Michigan State football team since the end of last year’s 3-9 season. Offensive lineman Thiyo Lukusa, who was a part of the 2016 recruiting class along with Lyke, announced his decision to transfer after just one season back in January. Other players taking the transfer route were linebacker Jon Reschke, who was the center of “an insensitive and totally regrettable comment involving a former teammate,” and cornerback Drake Martinez.
[the_ad id=”90168″]
Then there was the legal troubles of another true freshman in defensive lineman Auston Robertson, who was charged (and eventually arrested) with third-degree criminal sexual conduct before being dismissed from the program. Finally, a pair of juniors in defensive lineman Malik McDowell and safety Montae Nicholson foregoing their senior year and entering the NFL Draft. McDowell was drafted in the second round (No. 35 overall) by the Seahawks, while Nicholson was picked in the fourth round (No. 123 overall) by the Redskins.
But not all is bad for Michigan State over this weekend. They did pick up a seasonably late commit for the 2017 season, as 3-star athlete Shakur Brown (Stockbridge, GA) pledged to the Spartans for the upcoming season.
Michigan State lands 2017 cornerback Shakur Brown https://t.co/kz1XG7lBpK #Spartans pic.twitter.com/AkrV9fqifP
— Land of 10 MSU (@Landof10MSU) June 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/ShakurPrime/status/871178060896272384
Brown (6-foot, 180 pounds) is a 3-star ‘athlete’ from Woodland High School down in Georgia. The former West Virginia commit pledged to the Mountaineers program back in January but never signed his letter of intent on National Signing Day. He had kept his recruiting options open since then.
Brown had multiple scholarship offers, including from Big Ten rivals Minnesota and Purdue, as well as SEC schools Kentucky, Ole Miss and Tennessee. He made an official visit to Kentucky back in late January and it was only until recently (Tuesday, May 30) that made his most recent official campus visit, to East Lansing.
With the addition of Mr. Brown, Michigan State now has 27 newcomers as part of the Class of 2017; three early enrollees, 21 players signed, and Brown is one of three late additions. They added a pair of kickers in Cole Hahn (West Des Moines, IA) and Kelvin Flores (Miami, FL) in a span of eight days back in late April and early May.
