Michigan State's new coaching staff is making a lot of progress building relationships with in-state prospects and schools and one 2026 target who looks to be a priority for the Spartans moving forward is offensive lineman Ben Nichols.

Nichols currently attends Davison High School and was back on Michigan State's campus on Saturday for a junior day visit.

After receiving a scholarship offer from Michigan State's previous coaching staff in June of 2023, the new regime under head coach Jonathan Smith, offensive line coach/run game coordinator Jim Michalczik and the rest of the staff recently re-offered Nichols, which he publicly announced on Feb. 2.

Following the trip to East Lansing, Nichols discussed the re-offer and the visit with Spartans Illustrated.

"Seeing the kind of offense Coach Smith runs is something special," Nichols explained. "I think this MSU offense will be great in the upcoming season."

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Michigan State has hired Cordale Grundy as a graduate assistant wide receivers coach. Grundy most recently was with Colorado and spent time coaching with the Miami Dolphins as well. He also spent time with the Minnesota Vikings for the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship in 2023.

Grundy replaces Tino Smith in the role. As Spartans Illustrated previously reported, Smith took a lead wide receivers coaching job with Eastern Illinois.

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One of the top targets in the 2026 class for Michigan State is in-state offensive lineman Gregory Patrick.

The Portage Northern High School standout and Michigan State legacy prospect returned to East Lansing for a visit during MSU's junior day event on Saturday.

While the new Michigan State coaching staff for the Spartans has already been active with visiting Patrick's coaches at Portage Northern throughout the contact period, the visit gave the young offensive lineman the opportunity to spend quality time with head coach Jonathan Smith, offensive line coach/run game coordinator Jim Michalczik and the rest of the staff.

Patrick was re-offered by the new MSU regime in January. Saturday was his first trip back to campus since then. He detailed the experience with Spartans Illustrated.

"I think MSU will be very competitive in the years coming and I really like where the program is headed," Patrick said

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Michigan State is adding to its running back room with preferred walk-on commit Jaxon McCaig out of Plymouth High School.

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Michigan State boasts a two-game win streak and a season sweep of Maryland with Saturday evening's 63-54 victory over the Terps.

Malik Hall and Tyson Walker combined for 19 points apiece in the win, marking Walker's 33rd straight game in double figures.

Nfm

Michigan State (13-8, 5-5) is home once again as the Spartans host Maryland (13-8, 5-5) at the Breslin Center.

The first meeting between these two teams was almost two weeks ago in College Park. Michigan State only scored 17 points in the second half but won 61-59.

Tip off for today's game is at 5:30 p.m. on FOX.

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Funny clip and nice job by the MSU social media team here.

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It was a special moment for 2026 in-state running back Kory Amachree on Friday.

Michigan State hosted the legacy prospect for an unofficial visit, and Amachree left campus with a scholarship offer. While the Spartans will be hosting many prospects for junior day on Saturday, Amachree was able to spend quality time with the coaches on Friday.

Of course, Amachree is plenty familiar with Michigan State. He lives just a few miles away from campus in Haslett. His father, Opuene Amachree, played for MSU under head coach George Perles in the 1990s.

Now, the younger Amachree has an opportunity to blaze his own path. While it is early in his recruitment, he has already gotten plenty of attention from colleges, and more schools will likely continue to get involved.

While his scholarship offers count has already reached double-digits, the hometown offer stands out to Kory. He spoke with Spartans Illustrated to detail his visit and give his reaction to the Michigan State offer.

"It felt great," Kory said about the Michigan State offer. "It's such a great opportunity and I'm grateful to be in this position ... The new coaches at MSU are all great people. I loved my visit down there."

Jaxon Kohler addressed some of his thoughts when he first got injured and what his main takeaway was from his experience missing out the first few months of the season. He said that he “learned a bunch” on the court and off the court. Also, the time spent out made him appreciate basketball more.

“When I first got hurt, my first thought was everything happens for a reason,” Kohler said about his injury. “I think this was a good thing for me overall because it gave me a chance to kind of step out of the game in kind of a different perspective and see the game a little bit differently, from kind of a coaching standpoint.”

Michigan State class of 2024 four-star guard signee Jase Richardson will be on hand for MSU's game versus Maryland on Saturday.

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I will be on the This is Sparta! Podcast tonight at 8:00. There is always a lot of questions on the message board about NIL at MSU, so hopefully I will answer some of them for you. Here is the link:

While the advanced numbers continue to see Michigan State men's basketball team as an upper echelon team in the country this season, the Spartans can’t seem to escape from themselves in important games to add to their resume.

MSU has now entered a stretch of its year where the Spartans should be able to put together a high number of wins and enter March on the right note. Let’s check in where some players are trending heading into February.

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Michigan State football will be hosting a slew of prospects this weekend for Junior Day.

A list of all expected visitors and a breakdown of some key targets the Spartans will hope to gain some ground with over the next couple days:

Talking about home cooking!

Paul and I go back in time to break down Michigan State men's basketball's recent games against Wisconsin and Michigan.

We celebrate Izzo's 700th win and discuss how MSU is predicted to do heading into the rest of the regular season looking ahead to March.

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Michigan State remains busy on the recruiting trail. One of the newer offerees is defensive back/wide receiver Gavin Jenkins out of Union County High School in Lake Butler, Florida.

Michigan State secondary coach Blue Adams, a Florida native himself, stopped by Union County earlier this week and spoke to Jenkins in person before offering over the phone shortly afterward.

Below, Jenkins breaks down what the Michigan State scholarship offers means to him, discusses his upcoming visit plans and updates his recruiting timeline.

"My thoughts on Coach Adams are that I can tell that he sees something in me," Jenkins said. "He sees that I have play recognition and loves the guy I am."

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I turned on the TV to watch the KC - Baltimore game.
Did I hear it correctly the Super Bowl is going to be on Streaming Service?
Please tell me I'm going deaf

It was certainly a fun and joyous scene at the Breslin Center on Tuesday night as MSU pounded Michigan and Izzo earned his 700th win on his 69th birthday. There was a lot to be happy about right? Yes. There was.

But, Tom Izzo will always be Tom Izzo, and he rightfully pointed out a LOT of problems that are still lingering for this team. Michigan is a bad basketball team right now and MSU still trailed them by two at the half. As Izzo pointed out, MSU was frankly lucky to be down only two. The problems were obvious: BAD rebounding and defense that just wasn't good enough against a team that can actually shot the ball well, even if they can't do anything else.

Izzo address these issues. But, of course, there was time for reflections about the rivalry and the 700 wins as well. Check out my full story below:

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Several updates here, including Jaylan Brown's official visit, Jadyn Walker's unofficial visit and much more.