ANALYSIS: James Schott enters portal: What it Means & What's Next for Michigan State at EDGE

EAST LANSING, Mich. –  With Michigan State reserve EDGE James Schott having entered the transfer portal on Wednesday, where does that leave the Spartans at the EDGE position, with just two days remaining in the transfer portal spring window?

Meanwhile, Michigan State is busy in the transfer portal, working to scout and attract visits at the EDGE position. Michigan State has received official visits from three-star EDGE transfer candidates Isaac Smith (of Texas Tech) and Cam Williams (of Georgia State), with more possibly brewing under the radar. Things are purposefully quiet at the Tom Izzo Football Building on this front.

As for Michigan State’s current EDGE position situation, Schott competed this spring for a role in the two-deep, but didn’t quite nail one down. Schott (6-4, 243, Greenwood, Ind.) saw action in eight games last year as a third-string defensive end, and made two tackles. He played a career-high 11 snaps against Purdue, in late November, in 2024.

His season-high for snaps in a game prior to 2024 was 10 against Central Michigan as a redshirt-freshman in 2023.

WHAT IT MEANS & WHAT’S NEXT

SpartanMag projected Schott to be a third- or fourth-string EDGE this spring. It was an important spring for Schott and all other EDGE candidates to demonstrate their value, with an open starting job and a deep list of players who had never started a game at Michigan State.

SpartanMag projected Anthony Jones to be the starting EDGE this spring, largely by default, following the graduation of Khris Bogle. Jones saw back-up duty in 2024 along with Ken Talley, with limited production. Talley transferred to Arkansas in December. 

Jones missed practice time this spring, apparently for health reasons. Jones entered the portal during the last week of spring practice. Schott is the second scholarship EDGE player to enter the portal this spring. 

Early in the spring, SpartanMag projected the EDGE depth chart as:

1. Anthony Jones

2. David Santiago

3. James Schott or

3. Tyler Gillison or

3. Anelu Lafaele or

3. Stone Chaney

“This spring, we are trying to rotate all of those,” rush end coach Chad Wilt said last week. “We don’t have a clearcut starter. We rotate who’s going with the ones, who’s going with the twos, who’s going with the threes. But also for them, they are all going against our No. 1 tackles, our No. 2 tackles, so that they are all getting reps and getting evaluated and developed, going against the best offensive linemen in our program. 

“In this transactional world, we still want this to be a developmental program.

“We know we have to improve our pass rush. Some of that is in the individuals.”

With Jones and Schott having moved on, and having gained further information late in the spring, SpartanMag now projects the EDGE position as:

1. David Santiago (6-4, 245, R-Soph., Raleigh, NC | Air Force transfer) 

1a. Jalen Thompson (6-3, 259, Jr., Detroit)

2. Tyler Gillison (6-2, 246, R-Jr., Pickerington, Ohio | 2024 Cincinnati transfer) or

2. Anelu Lafaele (6-2, 245, R-Fr., Kalihi, Hawai’i | Wisconsin transfer) or

2. Stone Chaney (6-4, 240, R-Fr., Novi, Mich.)

Thompson played the EDGE position in the spring of 2024, but moved to down the down defensive end position for the regular season. He didn’t see any playing time at the EDGE in 2024. However, Michigan State gave Thompson some reps at the EDGE position during spring practice this year, and he showed some improved quickness. Thompson is 100 percent in the picture for a possible role at the EDGE position.

SpartanMag projects Thompson and Quindarius Dunnigan as 1 and 1a at the down defensive end position. A starting bookend tandem of Dunnigan at DE and Thompson at EDGE is not out of the question for 2025.

As for Chaney, SpartanMag didn’t hear a lot about him this spring, but don’t sleep on him. As a true freshman walk-on from Detroit Catholic Central, he got on the field last September ahead of Schott, and played a few downs against Prairie View, and looked pretty good. We’ll keep our ears to the ground on him.

Developmental updates on some of Michigan State’s other remaining EDGE players:

Wilt on Santiago: “He’s smart, he’s reliable, he’s tough, dependable,” Wilt said. “The college game is not foreign to him. He’s a younger player but he has some veteran presence to him also because of experience.

“He played 500 snaps of Division I football last year. The college game is not foreign to him. And the other thing he doesn’t make many mistakes twice. New system, there’s going to be some mistakes. They’re learning. That’s what practice is, working through some of those mistakes. But he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. I really like his approach and his demeanor.”

Wilt on Gillison: “He is moving into that veteran, experienced realm. He played at Cincinnati. He has some edge rush ability, too. Could he have added something (last year)? Possible. We saw some things in that film last year, that’s why we took him.

“He still needs to develop. He missed football last year. The last time he played, he was a young guy. So there is still development that is needed in all of these guys.”

Wilt on Lafaele: “We had (film) access to some of his practice stuff (at Wisconsin). In some of his practice stuff, you saw some real dynamic edge ability. As we looked at him, both at high school and some of the stuff he had there (at Wisconsin), he could really raise the pass rush level of the room.”

By SpartanMag’s count, Michigan State has had 33 total outgoing scholarship players since October, including 16 graduating seniors, 12 winter transfers and five spring transfers.

The five spring scholarship transfers are Jones, Schott, DB Caleb Coley, WR Anthony Clay and WR Jaylan Brown. More are likely.

Michigan State has 34 first-year scholarship players in the program, including 18 true freshmen, 16 transfers, and more expected.