Michigan State football must fill 3 needs as transfer portal opens

The transfer portal isn’t foreign to Pat Fitzgerald, even though the new coach for Michigan State football new coach has been out of the game for a few years.

Sure, the landscape of navigating college football’s mostly unregulated free agency market has exponentially changed since he was fired at Northwestern in 2023. But so has Fitzgerald’s ability to become more active in the portal with the Spartans without getting bogged down by the academic restrictions he had at Northwestern.

Then came New Year’s Eve, and Fitzgerald’s opportunity became a necessity. Everything about MSU’s roster flipped on its head.

A bevy of Spartans – from experienced starters to young reserves to walk-ons, among every position group on the team – have announced their intention to hit the portal, 35 of them ahead of the national opening of the NCAA transfer portal on Friday, Jan. 2.

Which puts Fitzgerald in a position to show what he learned during his coaching hiatus about roster management and rebuilding in the transfer portal and NIL era as the transactional period of college football begins anew.

“One day, a young man wakes up in a locker room and apples is the right thing to do. And the next day, it’s bananas, right?” Fitzgerald told the Free Press in 2021 before his Wildcats faced a completely overhauled MSU to open the season. “Because, just the coaching change, they may not fit anymore. And I think the transfer portal gives that young man an opportunity to go find a new home.

“As long as everything is happening for the right reasons and a young man wants to go find some more playing time or a better fit, I’m all for it. I’m 100% against coaches running guys off their rosters.”

A month later, one of MSU’s many transfer additions, Kenneth Walker III, dominated Fitzgerald’s defense for 264 rushing yards and four touchdowns as the Spartans destroyed the Wildcats, 38-21.

Now, Fitzgerald gets a chance to make a roster reset work, too.

“Do I think the transfer portal is here to stay in college football? Yeah, I do,” Fitzgerald said 4 1/2 years ago. “I don’t see that going backwards to what it used to be. But everybody’s gotta manage the roster the way they see fit. …

“I think we're the great plagiarists of athletics in football. So if it works, absolutely people will emulate it.”

Here are the three biggest areas for Fitzgerald to address before his first game at MSU.

THE BIG PLAN: Pat Fitzgerald: 'We've gotta get stronger'

Offensive line

One-time starting tackle Ashton Lepo announced Thursday that he plans to enter the portal, becoming the 10th MSU offensive lineman to explore transferring. Coupled with the losses of starting center Matt Gulbin and guard Caleb Carter – both one-year portal stopgaps in 2025 – to graduation, an area that already needed vast improvement now needs complete rebuilding.

Left tackle Stanton Ramil, who missed significant time with injuries, has two years left. Guard Luka Vincic, an offseason Oregon State addition, also has a year remaining after suffering a season-ending injury. Right tackle Conner Moore, also a transfer addition last season, has one more year of eligibility remaining, and he announced he'll be returning Thursday. Rising third-year players Rustin Young and Rakeem Johnson both got experience with injuries. But MSU struggled to run the ball and failed to protect its quarterbacks this fall, making this Fitzgerald’s primary priority.

EDGE/defensive end

Before the rush to the portal, addressing MSU’s pass rush was always going to be a major mission for Fitzgerald and returning coordinator Joe Rossi. Then came the transfer exploration decisions from veteran Jalen Thompson and one-year Air Force transfer David Santiago. An already short-staffed defensive end room appears that much thinner.

Redshirt freshman Anelu Lafaele, a Wisconsin transfer, showed promise before a season-ending injury and announced plans to stay at MSU. Beyond that, the Spartans don’t have any veteran experience returning, should Thompson and Santiago leave, thanks to the graduation losses of Quindarius Dunnigan, Isaac Smith and Cam Williams (all of whom arrived themselves the past two seasons as transfers).

Wide receiver/tight end

Like every portal situation, this one could potentially be addressed internally, should Fitzgerald be able to sway Nick Marsh to exit the portal and return to MSU for his junior season. There isn’t a more dynamic player on the roster with difference-making potential. Joining Marsh’s march to the portal on Wednesday were a pair of 2025 additions, Chrishon McCray (who emerged as a playmaker late in the 2025 season) and Evan Boyd.

Tight end Michael Masunas also put together a strong 2025, but he, too, is exploring the portal. Like Marsh, he would be a strong possibility for renegotiation, particularly with MSU losing Jack Velling to graduation, true freshman Jayden Savoury coming off a season-ending injury and incoming freshmen Joe Caudill and Eddie Whiting enrolling this month.

Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football transfer portal needs: What should MSU target?