There is always a bit of a guessing element when it comes to high school recruiting.

You have to watch these players play against competition several steps below the Big Ten, then figure out whether their skills can translate. That's why recruiting rankings are never perfect, or why "draft busts" exist in the NFL. There's never a way to actually know.

Michigan State Spartans head football coach Pat Fitzgerald points while introducing himself to the crowd at a men's basketball game against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. Fitzgerald was officially hired by MSU on Monday. | Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI

Being able to reliably predict which players can play Big Ten football is, in basic form, the best way for Michigan State football to turn its fortunes around.…