Michigan State football will have no shortage of transfer defensive backs this season. Considering last year’s injury woes, that’s probably a good thing.

Michigan State picked up its seventh defensive back from the transfer portal Tuesday as former Texas Tech safety Devynn Cromwell announced his commitment to the Spartans via Instagram.

A 6-foot, 200-pound senior from Toronto, Cromwell began his college career at University of Guelph in Canada, where he was a two-time All-Star in the Ontario University Athletics league. He joined Texas Tech last season, where he racked up 20 combined tackles across 179 defensive snaps. Pro Football Focus graded him a 62.4, second-highest among the Red Raiders’ safeties though in a fraction of the same sample size.

Cromwell would have been out of eligibility this season if not for a December 2024 NCAA blanket waiver to players who had completed their final year of eligibility that season after playing in a non-NCAA league. The waiver came after a Tennessee judge granted an injunction to allow Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia to play another year in 2025.

Michigan State has hit the secondary hard in its portal pushes, adding four new defensive backs along this spring portal window. Last week, East Carolina product Dontavius Nash announced his commitment. Before Nash, cornerback Anthony Pinnace (UTSA) and safety Tracy Revels (Bowling Green) committed. In the winter portal window, Michigan State brought in three transfer cornerbacks: Joshua Eaton (Oklahoma, Texas State), Malcolm Bell (Connecticut) and NiJhay Burt (Eastern Illinois).

Michigan State secondary coach Blue Adams will have a lot to work with, even after the loss of Charles Brantley (to Miami) and Dillon Tatum (to Northwestern) in the winter and spring portal windows, respectively. The Spartans also lost rotational piece Caleb Coley and walk-ons DJ Kennard and Shawn Smith to the portal. With Cromwell’s pledge, the Spartans’ secondary is back to its full complement from the start of spring ball.

The more bodies, the better. Last season, as many as seven defensive backs were injured at one time, pushing Michigan State deeper into its depth chart. Adams said in spring camp he’d take as many defensive backs as he could get.

Of seven spring portal commits, six have been on the defensive side of the ball. Cromwell, Nash, Revels and Pinnace all add to the secondary, while edge rushers Isaac Smith (a teammate of Cromwell’s at Texas Tech) and Cam Williams (Georgia State) also pledged. Tight end Kai Rios is the only add on offense.

The Spartans added 16 players in the winter transfer portal.