Michigan State's wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins looks on during the spring game on Saturday, April 16, 2022, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. Nick King / USA TODAY NETWORK

Four-Star WR Decommits from Michigan State

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Jacob Cotsonika | Last updated Oct 6, 2025 11:02 AM ET

Michigan State football's 2026 recruiting class took a tough hit on Monday morning, as four-star wide receiver Tyren Wortham announced that he would be withdrawing his verbal pledge to the Spartans. He had been committed to MSU since June.

According to the Rivals Industry Rankings, Wortham was the top recruit in Michigan State's next class. He was slotted at 243rd overall, the 42nd-best wide receiver, and ranked 33rd among players from Florida. Rivals has him as a four-star recruit (127th overall), as does ESPN (281st overall). 247Sports still gives him a three-star rating.

MSU had been fighting to keep Wortham committed for a while. Some other schools that have reportedly been trying to get him to back off include SEC schools Georgia and Auburn. He also reportedly visited UCF over the weekend, which is where he was committed to before backing off that commitment and choosing Michigan State.

Michigan State's 2026 Class

With Wortham now set to explore other options, Michigan State's top recruit in its next class, according to the Rivals Industry Rankings, becomes four-star quarterback Kayd Coffman.

He attends East Kentwood here in Michigan and comes in at 289th overall in the class of 2026. Among quarterbacks, Coffman is 24th. For players from Michigan, he's fifth.

The next-best wide receiver for position coach Courtney Hawkins in the class is four-star Samson Gash. He attends Detroit Catholic Central and comes in at 363rd overall in the Rivals Industry Rankings.

Another player that MSU is trying to avoid a decommitment or a flip is four-star linebacker Braylon Hodge. He just visited rival Michigan over the past weekend and also has future visits set with Oregon, Missouri, and Texas. Currently, Hodge is the third-highest-ranked player in Michigan State's 2026 class on the Rivals Industry Rankings at 348th overall and 25th among linebackers. He's also the second-best recruit from the state of Colorado.

In total, Michigan State is now down to 21 total commitments for the '26 class. With Wortham now out of that recruiting picture, the Spartans are down to four four-star recruits. All 17 other pledges are currently slotted as three-star recruits, according to Rivals.

Overall, it still looks like MSU and head coach Jonathan Smith will be improving on its 2025 recruiting class. That class, according to Rivals, had just one four-star signee (DT Derrick Simmons) among 19 total players. It finished 47th nationally and 14th in the Big Ten.