Michigan State football WR Keon Coleman transferring to Florida State
Keon Coleman’s time with Michigan State football is over.
The junior wide receiver announced Wednesday he plans to transfer to Florida State football for the 2023 season, taking his final two seasons of eligibility and freakish athletic ability with him.
And leaving a major void in the Spartans’ offense.
Two-year starting quarterback and two-time captain Payton Thorne also is leaving the program as a graduate transfer for Auburn. MSU lost wide receiver Jayden Reed in the NFL draft, leaving behind senior Tre Mosley and a group of talented but mostly unproven pass catchers to work with whichever quarterback wins the condensed competition in preseason camp.
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With Coleman's departure, the Spartans are now a significantly younger wide receiver group without him and Reed, who was selected in the second-round of the NFL draft by Green Bay on Friday. MSU also lost four-star recruit Germie Bernard, who in December transferred to Washington following his true freshman season with the Spartans.
Mosley emerged as a vocal leader last season and became the 48th MSU receiver in history to eclipse 1,000 yards for his career. The 6-foot-2, 198-pound Pontiac native and former West Bloomfield High star enters this fall with 98 catches for 1,176 yards and eight touchdowns in 36 career games, 21 of those starts. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining from redshirting in 2020 and also getting the COVID waiver for that season.
Fellow senior Montorie Foster, who also has two years of eligibility, has played in 30 games since arriving in 2020 and has four starts — one that season and three in 2021 when Jalen Nailor was hurt. The 6-foot, 185-pound Cleveland native played 120 offensive snaps in 10 games last season despite a foot injury last fall. He had seven catches for 98 yards and one touchdown in 2021 among his 19 career catches for 262 yards and two scores.
It is untested depth beyond that.
Former Louisville transfer Christian Fitzpatrick also returns for his third season at MSU. The 6-4, 218-pound redshirt junior and Southfield native played 39 snaps in five games last season before suffering an unspecified season-ending injury. MSU also has a group of young wideouts from its 2022 recruiting class that includes Antonio Gates Jr., Tyrell Henry and Jaron Glover. Those four have combined for five catches for 22 yards with the Spartans.
Yet there isn’t a wideout on the Spartans’ roster with the combination of size, speed, strength, agility and athleticism of Coleman, who is being projected to enter the NFL draft after this season.
Coleman put together a breakout sophomore season in 2022, leading MSU with 58 catches, 798 receiving yards and seven touchdowns while starting all 12 games. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound native of Opelousas, Louisiana, said in March that he battled a partial muscle tear near his hip flexor, near the groin, throughout the fall and aggravated the injury in the Spartans’ final game Nov. 26 at Penn State.
Both Coleman and Thorne (as a graduate transfer) submitted their names for the portal April 30, the final day undergraduate players were able to enter. Thorne called Coleman the night before on April 29, his first conversation immediately after informing MSU's coaching staff he intended to transfer, and his wide receiver replied, "If you're leaving, so am I," according to a source with knowledge of the conversation. Thorne entered the portal first the next morning, followed by Coleman a few hours later that Sunday afternoon.
Coleman's final transfer decision reportedly came down to Ole Miss and Florida State.
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As a freshman in 2021, Coleman had seven catches for 50 yards and a touchdown at Ohio State during. He then joined Tom Izzo’s basketball team after the Spartans’ Peach Bowl win and contributed five points, a rebound, three steals and three turnovers in 10 minutes spread over six hoops games in early 2022. Coleman returned to school in late December 2022 after MSU’s 5-7 season ended without a bowl game, expecting to rejoin Izzo’s program, before announcing a week later he planned to focus solely on football and his recovery from the injury.
A four-star recruit out of Opelousas Catholic School, Coleman arrived with MSU's 2021 class – part of a joint recruiting effort by Mel Tucker and Izzo – with the promise to be able to play both football and basketball for the Spartans. He was rated the nation's No. 61 receiver and No. 377 player overall in the 2021 class according to 247Sports.com's composite rankings.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football WR Keon Coleman transferring to Florida State
