Michigan State's offensive line coach Jim Michalczik works with the team during the first day of football camp on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in East Lansing. Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

MSU Makes Top Four for '26 Offensive Lineman, NFL Legacy

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Aidan Champion | Last updated Jun 11, 2025 7:45 PM ET

Michigan State's chances of landing a second offensive lineman from the class of 2026 have gone up.

Class of 2026 three-star offensive lineman Quinn Buckey of Liberty High School in Liberty, California, announced his final four schools on social media on Wednesday. Michigan State made the cut, along with UCLA, Arizona and Vanderbilt.

Buckey is an NFL legacy, his father, Jeff Buckey, having played at Stanford before going on to be drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the seventh round of the 1996 NFL Draft. His older brothers, Zach and Grant Buckey, play at Stanford and UCLA, respectively.

Jeff Buckey played three of his four NFL seasons with the Dolphins, playing in all but one game in the first two while making 12 starts in his sophomore campaign. He played in seven games for the San Francisco 49ers in his final season.

Super blessed to be in this position. @BrandonHuffman @R_Bolin63 pic.twitter.com/HM2XyH1VEt
— Quinn Buckey (@Quinnbuckey) June 11, 2025

Quinn Buckey is ranked the No. 76 class of 2026 recruit in California and the No. 75 offensive tackle in his class, per the 247Sports Composite rankings. 247Sports has one prediction logged for the prospect; it projects him to choose Vanderbilt, with "medium" confidence. The prediction was placed last month.

Quinn Buckey went on his official visit to Michigan State back in April, so the Spartans don't have the benefit of recency.

The prospect will announce his decision on Friday.

Michigan State is currently at 10 commits from the class of 2026, a number that has spiked since the start of June. All six of its commits from the month of June visited this month.

The Spartans have just one offensive lineman commit from the class so far -- in-state three-star Eli Bickel.

Recruiting offensive linemen from the high school ranks has not been a strong suit for Michigan State under the Jonathan Smith regime. This cycle, it has lost out on some highly-quality offensive line prospects, and it needs to start finding some success.

As far as the transfer portal goes, the Spartans have done well in that area, especially with the addition of Conner Moore, one of the top offensive linemen from the portal. Now, they need that to translate over to high school recruiting.

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This article first appeared on Michigan State Spartans on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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