Charles Brantley's 'mature decision' to withdraw from portal a boon for MSU's secondary

The Detroit News Michigan State’s offseason has been shaped by what the Spartans lost through the transfer portal. It’s understandable considering starting quarterback Payton Thorne and Keon Coleman, the team’s leading wide receiver, both entered the portal on the final day of April and have since committed elsewhere — Thorne to Auburn and Coleman to Florida State. But lost in most of the angst was the fact another key contributor that entered the portal the same day as Thorne and Coleman quickly opted to withdraw his name and remain at Michigan State. That, of course, was cornerback Charles Brantley. “Loyalty out values everything,” Brantley posted on Twitter after deciding to remain a Spartan, including in his post the image of a green heart and a prayer hands emoji. Last week during a break at the National College Showcase prospects camp at Wayne State, Michigan State coach Mel Tucker spoke for the first time about the transfer decisions from Thorne, Coleman and Brantley. And while he wished the best for Thorne and Coleman, Tucker was clearly happy to get back a junior-to-be who has played in 19 games in two seasons, starting 12. “I like Chuck,” Tucker said. “I think he made a really good decision to take his name out and come back.” Time will tell if it was the best decision for Brantley, but it surely was a choice that benefits the Michigan State defense. In two seasons, the 6-foot, 170-pound Brantley has 10 pass breakups and a pair of interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown last season against Ohio State. He’s also a willing tackler, collecting 66 stops, including two tackles for loss and a sack. The highlight of Brantley’s two seasons came as a freshman in 2021 when his interception late in the Michigan game sealed the victory for the Spartans. Despite missing the final four games that season to an injury, he put himself in position to start last season, something he did for the first 11 games before an injury knocked him out of the finale at Penn State. In a young, inexperienced secondary, Brantley’s return means the Spartans have at least some level of consistency at corner in a player Tucker still believes can make a big jump. “Obviously, he’s still developing as a player,” Tucker said. “We really like him as a young man. We’ve put a lot of work into him and invested a lot of time and he's progressing on and off the field. So, I'm just really happy about the decision because it was a mature decision and a good choice.” With Brantley likely locking down one of the starting cornerback spots, there’s still plenty up for grabs with the loss of veterans Ameer Speed and Ronald Williams. Marqui Lowery, who has battled injuries for much of his career with the Spartans, will push to see plenty of snaps while sophomore Dillon Tatum has seen time at both cornerback and safety. Ade Willie, Caleb Coley and Malcolm Jones are all second-year players with a high ceiling, and the Spartans added Wisconsin transfer Semar Melvin after last season ended and will continue to explore other players, as well. “We’re going to be young at that position but very talented,” Tucker said. “We do have some guys that transferred in that are going to help us and there may be another guy that may pop up here in the next couple days. We’ll see. That’s a position where I feel like we’re going to have more depth. “We might dip into the portal, as well (at safety). We’re going to be very competitive there. But we want to make sure that we're competitive at each position — offensive and defense — and not just depth but guys who can actually go in and play and play winning football for us. Some of the players in those positions our fans don't know about yet, but I think throughout camp and as the season starts, I think you'll recognize that we have more players than maybe what people think.” June visits June is a busy month for campus recruiting visits and Tucker and his staff got things rolling last weekend with a handful of prospects in what was the first of several waves of recruits checking out East Lansing. “We’ve got a lot of good players that are going to be coming in,” Tucker said. “Every weekend is going to be loaded with really, really talented players and they’re coming to East Lansing for a reason. They like what they’ve seen, what they know about us and we have to put our best foot forward and we’re certainly going to do that.” It’s the first big test for Mark Diethorn, who was hired in May to become Michigan State’s executive director of player personnel and recruiting, replacing Saeed Khalif, who was with the program the previous two seasons. “I’m really happy about Mark,” Tucker said of Diethorn, who was director of player personnel at Virginia Tech from 2018-21. “He’s done a great job so far coming in and he has experience, he’s done it before.”