Michigan State football gets top 10 Juco player, local RB among 4 transfer portal pickups

Roster management and building never stops. And Mel Tucker used the start of early high school signing period to bring in older transfers with college experience to help Michigan State football in key areas of need.

Two of them played at the same Georgia high school before embarking on a junior college journey that led to East Lansing. One of them is coming home to play with his brother. The other is a former top-100 player heading north with three years of eligibility remaining.

The Spartans on Wednesday picked up defensive tackle Dre Butler, a sixth-year transfer from Liberty. Then came the nation’s No. 1 junior college interior offensive lineman Keyshawn Blackstock, followed by South Florida running back and former Cass Tech star Jaren Mangham.

Tucker then pulled in one more defensive lineman, former 2021 four-star prospect Tunmise Adeleye from Texas A&M, making 12 transfers to go along with a 14-player high school class that signed Wednesday.

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It continued Tucker’s circuitous path to reshaping his roster after having eight prep players decommit during the 2023 recruiting cycle, including five four-star prospects. The Spartans signed all 14 of their high school commits Wednesday, and they have used the transfer portal to fill in gaps left from those lost pledges.

MSU added defensive tackle Jarrett Jackson (Florida State) and linebacker Aaron Alexander (Massachusetts) on Monday. Tucker in the past few weeks also landed running back Nathan Carter (Connecticut), cornerback Semar Marvin (Wisconsin), kicker Jonathan Kim (North Carolina) and tight ends Tyneil Hopper (Boise State) and Ademola Faleye (Norfolk State).

Mangham and Alexander remained unsigned as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, as well as Wisconsin tight end Jaylan Franklin.

Adding Blackstock boosts an MSU offensive line that underperformed this fall in the run game for much of the season. The 6-foot-5, 315-pound native of Covington, Georgia, will arrive in January with two years of eligibility left, after spending the past two seasons at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas. He's the No. 8 overall Juco player by 247Sports.com’s composite rankings, and had offers from a number of top Power Five schools including USC, Oklahoma, Auburn and Tennessee, and five other Big Ten programs.

Like Blackstock, Butler played his high school ball at Newton High in Covington, before playing one season at Independence Community College in Kansas in 2019. He sat out the 2018 season. Butler originally signed a letter of intent to play at Tennessee-Chattanooga of the Football Championship Subdivision in the 2018 class and had offers to play college basketball at smaller schools.

MSU will be the third Football Bowl Subdivision stop in the past four seasons for Butler, who had 20 tackles and a sack in 13 games at Auburn during the 2020 and 2021 seasons before transferring to Liberty in January. The 6-5, 300-pound had 23 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 13 games for the Flames this fall, forcing a fumble and recovering another.

Mangham, the former Detroit Cass Tech standout, announced Wednesday afternoon he was transferring to Michigan State, his third college. Tucker signed Mangham in the class of 2019 at Colorado — Mangham previously had committed for Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre — where he played in all 12 games as a freshman. After the 2020 season, Mangham transferred to South Florida, where he was an All-AAC honorable mention in 2021 after rushing for 15 touchdowns. He played in four games this season, rushing for 104 yards on 24 carries and three touchdowns.

Mangham's brother, Jaden, just completed his true freshman season as a defensive back at MSU.

TRACKER:Michigan State football transfer portal player tracker: Who's coming, who's going

Adeleye is a 6-4, 290-pounder from Katy, Texas, who redshirted in 2021 and played in just three games this season. He was the No. 39 player in the country in 2021, the ninth-best defensive lineman and the No. 8 player out of Texas.

The moves continued Tucker’s circuitous path to reshaping his roster, after having eight prep players decommit during the 2023 recruiting cycle, including five four-star prospects. The Spartans entered signing day with a 14-player high school class, and they have used the transfer portal to fill in gaps left from those lost pledges.

MSU added defensive tackle Jarrett Jackson (Florida State) and linebacker Aaron Alexander (Massachusetts) on Monday. Tucker in the past few weeks also landed running back Nathan Carter (Connecticut), cornerback Semar Marvin (Wisconsin), kicker Jonathan Kim (North Carolina) and tight ends Tyneil Hopper (Boise State) and Ademola Faleye (Norfolk State).

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State adds Keyshawn Blackstock, Jaren Mangham, Dre Butler