EAST LANSING – When Michigan State football hired Curtis Blackwell as director of college advancement and performance in August 2013 — a new position with a primary purpose of bolstering recruiting — he soon realized it would take time to adjust to a system that already was in place and working.

Mark Dantonio’s program now has 53 wins in the past five years and top-five finishes in the past two despite an average Rivals.com ranking of No. 33 for his first eight classes. That’s the current Rivals.com ranking of the current class, by the way, which stands at 16 verbal commitments and likely will be the third of MSU’s past four to consist of fewer than 20 members. - Read more at Freep.com