Michigan State running back transfer Jaren Mangham commits to Minnesota

Former Michigan State running back Jaren Mangham has a new home for the 2024 season. According to On3’s Spartans’ fan site contributor SpartanMag Jim Comaroni, the former Spartan will remain in the Big Ten after committing to playing for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

“Former Michigan State running back Jaren Mangham has announced his commitment to transfer to the University of Minnesota. He will be on scholarship with the Gophers,” said Comaroni.

Mangham played his high school football at Cass technical high school in Detroit, MI. He would work his way up to becoming a three star running back recruit with a grade of 88.5 in the 2019 recruiting class. As a part of the 2019 cycle he was the No. 470 overall recruit, No. 39 running back, and ranked No. 11 in recruits coming out of the state of Michigan, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Jaren Mangham has a twin brother, Jaden Mangham, who is also expected to announce his new college football home soon after leaving Michigan State recently as well.

Jonathan Smith explains enjoyable aspects of rebuilding a team

Jonathan Smith has a rebuild on his hands in East Lansing after becoming the head coach at Michigan State this offseason. It’s a far better process for everyone, though, when they’re all bought in to it like the Spartans apparently are.

Smith spoke about the work within their program during his postgame press conference after their Spring Showcase in mid-April. He explained how every coach enjoys the development aspect of their team, both individually and collectively. That’s then even better for the staff when the players themselves are also all in on that effort.

“Yeah, I will say I think that’s why you coach is you enjoy improvement and the process that takes,” said Smith.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Smith said. “I enjoy, this coaching staff enjoys that process of improvement and development. Especially working with a group – these guys like football. They like being around it, they like practicing, they like studying it.”

“As a coach, you kind of enjoy that part,” said Smith.

Smith and the Spartans have had a lot to do over the past few months. That comes with any new career opportunity, especially for one with a team that went 4-8 last year and 9-15 over the past two and specifically one that’s coming out of a tenure that ended in a scandal.