Earlier this morning, Michigan State staff and the former QB made a commitment Bo Edmundson public separate ways. The Austin, TX-based Lake Travis product announced his departure from MSU’s Recruiting Class of 2023 via social media. Spartan Tailgate sources were briefed last week that MSU has now planned to move in that direction for a period of time, but the staff wanted to allow Edmundson to come to the same conclusion himself and take his time in the subsequent announcement.
By the time Edmundson was signed, the well-built, 6-foot-3 gunslinger had displayed solid potential, admirable pocket toughness and a tight window zip. As a senior, he had an opportunity to take his game to another level, but suffered injuries during the offseason (hindering his Elite 11 rating) and for most of the current regular season. Edmundson persevered despite his lingering back injury and returned for an October 8 contest, which his team won. However, he was then out of action again for the next few weeks until October 29, when the team’s new starting QB suffered an injury and Edmundson was asked to step up.
He played well when he could see the field, but that sample size just wasn’t that big last year. This also most likely contributed to Edmundson falling from 433 in the 247Composite rankings when he signed to 803 nationally. Still, given the tools he owns when healthy, it’s expected that Edmundson will be able to find a good home for himself ahead of signing day. His personality will also go a long way in making him attractive to schools that may be a better fit.
Where Michigan State plans to go from here, sources tell me multiple destinations will emerge and employees won’t limit themselves. With that in mind, I’m hearing that MSU will initially go to great lengths to try and flip the five-star QB of 2023 Dante Moore, a Detroit, MI-based King product currently committed to Oregon. Obviously this will not be an easy task and expectations should be tempered. Not only would Moore have rightfully enticing incentives available if he were to enlist in Oregon, but the Ducks have had plenty of success in the 2022 season. On the other hand, sources emphasized that MSU will not go under without exhausting all resources here. Also, multiple Midwestern sources have firmly placed the Spartans in Moore’s lead group when it appeared he might be leaning towards Notre Dame in early summer.
In April, Moore’s high school head coach Ty Spencer shared this with 247Sports’ Sam Webb, specifically saying, “I think Michigan State looked really good for him in the beginning, and then they took a quarterback … I know Coach.” (Jay)Johnson and Tuck are great guys, but there aren’t too many quarterbacks[who]want to play with two[QBs in a class].” While the part about MSU posing a serious threat to Moore was true, the state’s officials were Michigan personally felt that Notre Dame was way ahead of the crowd at the time, while others like Oregon, Michigan, Texas A&M, and Alabama also posed a threat.
In other words, the MSU staff felt it was better to put the next best QB (Edmundson) on their board than miss both. After all, the situation the Spartans feared is exactly what happened to Notre Dame when they averted the star QB goal Christopher Vizzina in favor of Moore. Well, Vizzina quickly chose Clemson after ND made that decision, but Moore later chose Oregon. This sequence of events left ND with no QB commit for 2023.
All in all, MSU was probably smart about doing what they were doing back then, and to be honest, the Spartans probably weren’t going to land Moore back then, despite being a larger factor that gave them the most credit for. Anyway, things have changed now with MSU’s evaluation of the aforementioned “next best QB on their board” in Edmundson, so we’ll see if the staff can reignite that earlier interest Moore had in them , no matter how extensive it may have been.
Other QB targets will also appear in the near future, but these will be posted to the Shaw Lane VIP Board as soon as they are revealed. One will be announced shortly.
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