For a program without a lot of big-star recruits, Michigan State football made a big-time splash Wednesday.

On the first day of the early signing period, head coach Jonathan Smith and Co. flipped highly regarded running back Jace Clarizio at home in Ingham County. Clarizio, who led East Lansing High School to the state semifinals as a junior and senior, flipped from MSU to Alabama last week.

But MSU coaches never gave up, and Clarizio had a change of heart Wednesday.

The signing didn’t exactly send Michigan State’s national ranking soaring, but it certainly helped the Spartans, whose 2025 class is ranked 53rd in the nation. It got as high as 52nd after Clarizio’s signing. It had been in the 60s.

“You just keep competing,” Smith, who just completed his first season as head coach, said Wednesday, speaking with reporters about the early signings. “All of us felt really, really confident that our place was a great fit for him.

“You just keep competing, all the way to till the end, and really re-echoing some messages, where we’re headed with this program. … At the end of the day, I think they made a great, great choice.”

Clarizio is a three-star prospect, per the 247Sports composite rankings, and a four-star, per ESPN. The 6-foot, 190-pounder is the top-ranked running-back prospect in the state of Michigan.

Clarizio’s 89 ranking number from 247Sports is the fourth-highest in MSU’s class, which included 18 signings Wednesday. The highest is Frankenmuth defensive lineman Derrick Simmons, a four-star prospect who led his team to the state championship game last weekend. Linebacker Charles White, a state champion with Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, also is a four-star, and Maryland cornerback Aydan West is on the bubble between a three-star and a four-star. West chose Michigan State over the likes of Ohio State and UCLA.

But Clarizio provided most of the buzz, given his back-and-forth in recent days. Now, he’s sticking at home, having grown up in the shadows of Spartan Stadium. He joins an MSU team that was among the worst rushing teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2024.

“It shows we can compete at the highest level,” said Smith, whose Spartans were 5-7 in his first season. “A couple of these guys had really high-profile options and we were able to have them pick us and have them believe in this.

“There’s just value for guys that play in this state, high-school football in this state, to be able to stay home.”

Clarizio rushed for 1,679 yards and 28 touchdowns on 214 carries as a senior, and rushed for 1,247 yards and 16 touchdowns as a junior, when he was first-team all-state. He also caught two TD passes as a junior.

He is a consensus top-10 recruiting prospect in the state of Michigan, and a top-40 running-back prospect nationally.

Clarizio is among 11 Wednesday signees who will enroll early at MSU, in January, and Smith believes he has a chance to contribute immediately to the Spartans, who averaged just 115.3 rushing yards a game in 2024. That was tied with Purdue for 110th in the nation.

Of course, in this era of the transfer portal and NIL, it’s in MSU’s best interest to provide the opportunities for freshmen to play and contribute right away, for fear that a player who feels underutilized could hit the portal.

“Immediate opportunity to impact us on offense,” said Smith, adding that Clarizio could also contribute right away on special teams. “We’ll start spring ball in March and he’ll get an opportunity to kind of showcase where he’s at.

“Really pleased kind of where we landed today. It’s one piece of the puzzle.”

Star search

While Michigan State crept toward a top-50 ranking nationally, per 247Sports, it checked in 16th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten, ahead of just Northwestern and Purdue. Purdue just fired Ryan Walters as coach.

Smith said the rankings and star designations aren’t everything.

“I’m not here to stay stars don’t mean anything at all,” Smith said. “We would like to get a few more of those.

“I don’t know if it’s as vital to win a championship.

“We will trust our evaluations.”

With the changing landscape of college athletics, Smith said high-school recruiting is just one part of the puzzle. There’s also the transfer portal, which opens next week. Smith said in an ideal world, he’d like his new players somewhere close to a 50-50 spot between high-school recruits and portal additions.

“I just think that might be a reality,” Smith said.

In-state inroads

Michigan State’s early signing class includes six players from the state of Michigan, including two from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (tight end Jayden Savoury is the second, with a third potentially on his way) and two from Macomb Dakota (linebacker DiMari Malone and offensive lineman Justin Bell), as well as two players from Ohio (wide receiver Braylon Collier and defensive lineman Cal Thrush.

Smith said he’s pleased with the inroads he’s made in the Midwest, especially given he had no experience around here before taking the Michigan State job. He was a West Coast guy.

There’s always room for improvement, though.

“We want to continue to build those relationships,” Smith said. “Hopefully, next year, we’re talking about more.”

The early signing class also has two players each from California and Texas, and one from Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. The class includes eight players on offense, nine on defense and one on special teams.