What's driving the Michigan State transfers?

What’s going on in East Lansing? That’s what everyone wants to know after some big names hit the portal… but, could it be just something that was best for these players, and nothing to do with the Spartans football program?

Last weekend, right at the deadline, Michigan State had multiple players enter the transfer portal… and it wasn’t the usual suspects of 3rd stringers and walk-ons. Cornerback Charles Brantley, QB Payton Thorne, and WR Keon Coleman all entered the portal. Brantley quickly withdrew his name and announced that he’s headed back to East Lansing. But the QB & WR still remain available on the market.

Thorne was the QB of the 2021 11 win team, but his ceiling was obvious in last year’s failed 5-7 campaign, as he completed 62.5% of his passes with 19 TDs and 11 INTs. Yes, he’s the incumbent starter for the Spartans, but there had been whispers that Noah Kim was outplaying him in practice.

In the spring game, Kim obviously had the 4 or 5 best passes of the day, showing touch, accuracy, etc. Thorne was slightly more consistent, but there’s a ton of potential with Kim that Thorne doesn’t have at this point.

So, if we’ve reached a point where Kim was likely to be the starter, this makes absolute sense for Thorne to look elsewhere, especially with several big programs still needing QB help and potential starters - which is exactly why he announced that he’s transferring to Auburn this morning. I’m not sure what think of Thorne in Hugh Freeze’s offense… but I do think he’s a better passer than anybody they’ve got on the roster right now.

It is kinda funny when you think about it. Dave Aranda is lauded last year for telling his incumbent starter, Gerry Bohannon, that he’d likely get more playing time somewhere else (and he did at USF), but it happens with Mel Tucker and everyone immediately starts to question “What’s wrong in East Lansing?” Anyway…

The one transfer that’s going to sting is Keon Coleman. A basketball & football player, he was the most explosive playmaker on the team, with 798 receiving yards and 7 TDs, along with averaging nearly 14 yds per catch. Coleman is from Louisiana, but didn’t get an offer from LSU when he was in high school. The talk is that Coleman wants to join the Bayou Bengals… but do they have room for him? That WR room is absolutely stacked, even with losing Boutte & Jenkins. Obviously, a player like Coleman is somebody you want on your team, and whoever gets him is going to be better for it… but we’ll see if it’s LSU. Nabors, Taylor & Thomas are all back, along with the younger guys behind them.

Is it possible Coleman could come back if they get NIL sorted? Possibly. But it looks more and more like he’s going to be heading elsewhere. He’s visiting Florida State this weekend, and the Seminoles could use another WR to fill the role of transfer Mycah Pittman - a WR they were not planning on having to replace.

Here’s the weird thing to me… there are a lot of reports that said these guys didn’t really want to leave East Lansing, but they had to in order to accomplish what they were looking for. What is it they’re trying to accomplish? Is it getting paid? Is it winning? I would love to get some real details from the players on what they’re looking for. But at the end of the day, I don’t know that this necessarily means that there’s anything really wrong with Mel Tucker’s program.

From the Friday, May 5th full show: https://youtu.be/k9gdzfRB0VE

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