DALLAS — Even Connor Cook couldn’t understand why Michigan State was recruiting him.
He was struggling his junior year, his high school failing to reach the postseason, and yet each week, like clockwork, the Spartans would be the only college sending the young quarterback personalized letters.
“I don’t know what it was,” he recalled on Monday in Dallas, where the Spartans are preparing for Thursday’s Cotton Bowl. “I [questioned] it a lot, and I still do to this day.”
As was the case with so many other under-recruited prospects who have been part of this recent run of success in East Lansing — three straight seasons of 12 wins or more and five double-figure win seasons in the last six years — Michigan State knew what everyone else didn’t. It’s a list that keeps on expanding, two- and three-star prospects who wind up at Michigan State and become All-Americans, outperforming players at other schools ranked significantly higher.
There is Cook, an NFL prospect under center, and All-American offensive tackle Jack Conklin, who began his career at Michigan State as a walk-on after initially figuring he would attend prep school. Senior defensive end Shilique Calhoun was a raw three-star out of New Jersey who has become one of the sport’s premier pass-rushers.
Bengals cornerback Darqueze Denard was a two-star prospect who became the Jim Thorpe award winner at Michigan State as the country’s top defensive back. So was Vikings cornerback Trae Waynes, the 11th overall pick in last year’s NFL draft. Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell’s only other scholarship offer out of high school was from Bowling Green, while Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins had Western Michigan.
“It’s just finding guys that fit your system and coaching them up and making them better players than a lot of people thought they were out of school,” Rivals.com national recruiting analyst Mike Farrell said in a phone interview. “Michigan State has taken that to an even higher level.”
Because of the Spartans’ recent success, they have been able to land more elite prospects recently, with back-to-back top-25 classes and a combined 14 four- or five-star prospects according to Rivals.com. Their 2016 class is ranked 13th. Still, their philosophy hasn’t changed.
“Our recruiting process is one where we do a pretty good job of evaluating, making sure we see guys in person, not paying attention to who’s offered them, how many stars they have,” co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner said. “We go by our own evaluations.”
It has paid off for the Spartans in this run, and Cook is the perfect example. Former defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, now the head coach at Pittsburgh, visited Walsh Jesuit High School in Stow, Ohio when Cook was a sophomore to meet with a teammate, and he was taken with Cook.
Narduzzi, impressed by Cook’s arm strength, outgoing personality and smarts, was so excited when the youngster visited with his family the following year, he extended him a scholarship offer before the prospect’s dad came back from the bathroom.
“Me and my mom look at each other, like, ‘Are you serious?’” Cook recalled.
Cook expected more major offers to follow, but they never came. His only others would come from Miami of Ohio and Akron. After red-shirting as a freshman and serving as the backup the following year, he’s gone 34-4 as a starter, winning two Big Ten titles, along with Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl crowns, and will get drafted in the spring, likely in the early-to-middle rounds.
“Obviously, they saw in him what other schools didn’t,” Farrell said. “Connor is one of those guys they stole out of Ohio State’s backyard, but at the time it wasn’t thought to be a steal at all.”
And therein lies what drives Michigan State, that chip on the Spartans’ shoulder. They often feel disrespected, as the other team in their own state. They have a roster full of kids who were told they weren’t good enough, didn’t run fast enough, weren’t big enough, lacked the skills to play at the highest level.
At Michigan State, they have the opportunity to prove those doubters wrong.
“It’s a lot of guys from Ohio who didn’t get offers from Ohio State and a lot of guys from Michigan who didn’t get offers from Michigan,” Conklin, the offensive tackle from Plainwell, Mich., said. “We’ve sort of become the rag-tag crew that’s come together and had a lot more potential than people saw.
“I think that’s what makes us so good. A lot of us have been looked over. We’re trying to create something more. We’re trying to show everyone what they missed out on. We’re going to work harder than everyone else in the nation to prove that.”