Michigan State loses commitment of 2021 three-star tight end Jake Renda

As if things couldn’t get worse for the Michigan State Spartans, following multiple reports that the Big Ten will cancel its fall football season, MSU has now lost the commitment of 2021 three-star tight end, Jake Renda.

Renda announced that he will flipping his commitment to Pat Narduzzi’s Pittsburgh Panthers. Narduzzi, of course, was a longtime defensive coordinator for the Spartans under Mark Dantonio, holding that role from 2007 until 2014. I feel like I should also note that the “Coach Salem” Renda refers to in his message is Pitt’s tight ends coach, Tim Salem, and not former MSU offensive coordinator, Brad Salem — but the two are actually brothers.

Renda has played primarily at the quarterback position throughout his high school career in New Jersey, but transferred to IMG Academy in Florida for his senior season to hone his skills at the tight end position.

He is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 66 tight end and No. 1,276 player overall. Renda held additional offers from Arizona, Boston College, North Carolina State, Central Michigan, Florida International and others.

After initially committing to Michigan State on July 4, Renda tweeted out that he received an offer from Pittsburgh on July 24. He was actually the latest recruit to verbally commit to MSU. This decision leaves the Spartans with just 11 players currently committed in the 2021 class, which is only ahead of Purdue (nine total commits) in the Big Ten conference

The recruiting struggles continue for head coach Mel Tucker, who was highly-regarded for his recruiting prowess upon being hired at MSU. After getting off to a hot start in April, things have really cooled down for the Spartans. With Renda’s decision, Tucker has now had a second player de-commit from the 2021 class. The first was three-star defensive back Gabe Nealy from Miami, Florida in May. It’s important to be patient with Tucker and the new staff’s ability to recruit, given that it is the first year for the staff, there is a global pandemic going on and football is all but over for the fall. But, so far the results haven’t been encouraging.