Some news and notes on MSU’s WRs and DBs:

Michigan State's Matt Forbes opens U.S. Open action Tuesday as the first-ever Spartan in tournament.

Of note: Forbes is part of the MSU NIL Collective 'This is Sparta!'

Good stuff here from MSU:

Michigan State men’s tennis freshman Matthew Forbes will open action in the main draw of the 2024 U.S. Open on Tuesday, Aug. 27 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, New York, as announced by the U.S. Open Friday.

Forbes is the first Spartan to qualify for the tournament and will face Roman Safiullin of Russia in his first match, as the draw was announced by the U.S. Open.

“It means a lot to me to play in the U.S. Open as a Spartan and be the first Michigan State player to play there, especially since I think I’m one of just four college players in the main draw,” Forbes said. “I think it means a lot to the program and recruiting wise, there’s going to be young kids that see that Spartan head logo and our coaching staff in Spartan gear and hopefully over the next few years and that will be great for our program.”

The Spartan earned the wild card entry by winning the singles title at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Boys’ 18-Under National Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Aug. 11 at Kalamazoo College’s Stowe Stadium.

“It’s great to have Matthew playing in the U.S. Open main draw, he’s the first from our program and not a lot of college programs get to say they have a guy in the main draw of the U.S. Open,” assistant coach Kazuki Matsuno said to the media on Thursday. “It’s huge for us and huge promotion for us since he’ll be sporting some Sparty gear while he’s there, so people will be seeing Spartan colors there, which is huge for our tennis program and for Michigan State University.”

A TennisRecruiting.net blue-chip recruit, Forbes signed a National Letter of Intent with the Spartans in July. The Raleigh, North Carolina native has an International Tennis Federation (ITF) juniors career-high ranking of No. 34 and is ranked sixth in the class of 2024.

Forbes will be accompanied to New York by MSU men’s tennis head coach Harry Jadun, Coach Matsuno, and other members of the Spartan coaching staff, along with his hitting partner, junior Ozan Baris.

Katin Houser takes shots at MSU: the offensive scheme, Tucker, and MSU fans...

"It's totally different between ECU and Michigan State. They really want their team to win, so you are either doing well or getting ridiculed on social media."

"With ECU, I feel no matter what we do, we are going to have support from the fans. I feel the love and support is totally different."

"Last year (at MSU) was a dumpster fire with the coach being fired. As an offense, we didn't have an identity. We had a bunch of good players, and we didn't know how to use them in the right way. I was scrambling, trying to understand the offense and execute at my best with everything going on. We were struggling with when to use certain plays and use certain players, and the identity of the Big Ten and Michigan State is to pound the rock and run the ball, and we could not do that at all, at any point of the season. So it was relying on the pass game which we didn't focus on much."


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