Previously: Last year’s profiles. P Tommy Doman Jr. S Rod Moore. CB Ja’Den McBurrows. LB Jaydon Hood. LB Junior Colson. LB Tyler McLaurin. DE Kechaun Bennett. DE TJ Guy. DE/DT Dominick Giudice. DT George Rooks. DT Rayshaun Benny. NG Ikechukwu Iwunnah. C Greg Crippen. C/G Raheem Anderson. T Giovanni El-Hadi. T Tristan Bounds. TE Louis Hansen. WR Cristian Dixon. WR Xavier Worthy.

Take the fourth quarter of Braylonfest, add a pinch of a Mike Hart presser, mix in Mo Wagner’s ankle-breaker, and top it with the Charles Matthews photo, let it stew for 100 years of inferiority so deep they’re mad at the very concept of non-alumni fandom, and you have a perfect recipe for Spartan Tears.

But if you don’t want to go through all that prep, you can always drive up to East Lansing and carry out a perfect receiver prospect for MSU. Andrel Anthony comes with all the fixings of an in-state recruiting win: grew up a Michigan fan in East Lansing, a bogus 3-star ranking, Notre Dame recruiters who saw a lack of reciprocal interest as a personality flaw, some late Penn State negative recruiting to dip it in, and of course a heaping side of shoulder chips. While supplies last, you can also get some interest from regional receiver factories like Indiana and Minnesota. We’ll even throw in some homemade “We didn’t need Xavier Worthy anyway” talk from Michigan’s otherwise close-lipped spring sessions.

I could use some of your help though. It’s my first year doing the recruiting writeups so I don’t remember the protocol for announcing the Sleeper of the Class. Do I do it now, at the end of his writeup, or wait until the overview post? Did I just blow the surprise? Whatever—don’t care—because whenever you choose to chuck a deep one in the direction of Andrel Anthony, chances are he’s going to make you look smart for it.

[After THE JUMP: Fighting with a vim.]

Santana background music. I always write to music so you might as well listen along.

Silky smooth super athlete. Anthony had interest from more than just the locals. Indiana, which always seems to have a 6’2” jump-baller or three, and PJ Fleck, another guy with a deep history of extremely productive tall types, were both involved in this one even after it was clear Anthony preferred to stay in-state. It also helped that Michigan got in early while MSU dragged its feet then changed coaches.

One of the major themes for Anthony—and for the other receivers those schools have brought in—was the smoothness. This was Spartan247's Stephen Brooks at MSU’s Elite Camp in June 2019:

[2022 OR four-star Darrius] Clemons and Anthony were 1A and 1B in terms of the most impressive receivers on the field. Anthony is really smooth and a great route-runner. At 6-2, 165 he’s able to glide by DBs and showed reliable hands downfield. Anthony can be a legitimate threat from all over the field, too, not just in the vertical passing game. He definitely looks like a future No. 1 receiver wherever he lands.

SpartanMag's Jim Comparoni was there as well.

Anthony showed terrific acceleration, but could gear down in an instant for comeback routes. His crisp footwork on go routes, corner routes and post-corners is already that of a college player.

As was 247’s Allen Trieu, who named Anthony one of his top performers at the camp:

Since he has picked up several camp offers, some Spartan fans have wondered when MSU would jump in on this 2021 wide receiver from right there in East Lansing. The Spartan staff just needed to see him camp and he did what he needed to do showing fluid route-running, good speed and sure hands.

Trieu kept this impression when he wrote up the 247 scouting report:

Long, thin frame. Very smooth, natural athlete. Changes directions and comes in and out of his breaks fluidly. That serves him well as a route runner where he creates separation. Excellent ball tracking skills and body control. Shows ability to make catches in traffic. Solid runner after the catch.

…and after a squeezed-in senior year when East Lansing didn’t lose until falling in a 24-21 thriller to repeat D-II champion Mona Shores in the quarterfinals, Trieu amended this to “smooth, naturally athletic prospect with great ball skills” and such:

Anthony has excellent positional skills. He is a smooth athlete who changes directions very fluidly. That is evident in his releases and ability to cut and create separation out of his breaks. Also a basketball player, he uses his length and leaping ability to high-point passes. He tracks the ball very well in the air. Athletic tasks on the football field are things he does fluidly and naturally, nothing looks like it takes great effort for him.

Trieu’s comp (3-stars don’t often have those) was Deontay Burnett—which is a *VERY* meaningful comp. Burnett is a just-under-6’0” slot receiver with 4.70 speed who was nevertheless extremely productive for USC by routinely turning bad Sam Darnold throws into receptions. Burnett plus two inches is…well it’s every damn Indiana receiver ever. Anthony’s coach described the high school version of this as “He caught the ball a lot of different ways in a lot of different places,” which is just delightfully evocative for coachspeak.

This came out in games despite Andrel attracting an insane amount of defensive attention. This is from Anthony’s round 1 playoff loss as a junior:

“It was disappointing to lose to DeWitt, but I matured a lot in that game,” Anthony told The Detroit News. “I grew up a lot. Double teams and triple teams are not fun, especially when you have a corner pressing you hard and running with you wherever you go, have a linebacker that’s like running straight out to the flat area and then you have a safety over top.

“DeWitt also had a 6-foot-7 defensive end so they put him on my side as well so we couldn’t throw a hitch, so there was a lot to overcome. But I had like 10 catches for 157 yards, so my quarterback Sam Busch and I had a good run.”

“They put four guys on me and I only had 10 catches for 157 yards” wasn’t a one-off thing. Rivals Austin Fox got out to a game last year and saw this desperation moonball…

Andrel Anthony’s second big play of the night occurs early in the third quarter on this 40-yard reception. pic.twitter.com/wt4z4bgMCQ

— Austin Fox (@AustinFox42) September 26, 2020

…but argued it was only the second-best catch of the night.

His second quarter grab was arguably the play of the night, occurring on a gorgeous 25-yard fingertip grab along the sideline in which he had to dive and stretch completely out to get it. The play was reminiscent of Desmond Howard’s iconic fourth down grab against Notre Dame in the end zone in 1991.

For you young’uns:

The smoothness wasn’t the main thing Harbaugh talked about when Harbaugh talked a lot about Anthony, but the polish was talked about:

He was also somebody that we saw in camp multiple times, known him for a very long time. He has a high school record. 1,0971 receiving yards. He is as close to a finished receiver-type person in high school that you can be. Tremendous football background as well at East Lansing. One of my absolute favorite high school coaches up there in the country. Everything. I like everything about Andrel Anthony."

The main thing Harbaugh talked about was Anthony’s athleticism (same link):

First met him my first year here at Michigan," Harbaugh said. "We were doing a youth camp. I could pull it up on my phone and show you, it’s pretty cool. Still have it. Also, great competitor. Love watching him play basketball to see him develop from a young kid to a tremendous, tremendous football player. Got great length, great catch radius. Definitely one of my favorites, if not my very favorite. The connection, the friendship, tremendous player." … "The big catch radius, he lights up the room, to me, with his enthusiasm," Harbaugh said. "The other people, you see the smile and the energy, he could—whether it’s on the basketball court or on the football field, I really see the energy and the enthusiasm. The athletic ability just pops.

Andrel played basketball and ran track for East Lansing, and Marich even mentioned the possibility of Anthony walking on Juwan Howard’s squad.

There was one extreme outlier; Irish247’s Tim Prister did a junior film evaluation in March 2020 and saw the slot possession receiver but none of the silk (bolds left in from Ace’s Hello):

Not a lot of distinguishing characteristics for an undersized, slot receiver…other than a great ability to catch every football that touches his hands. Andrel Anthony makes the difficult catch frequently. He also has the ability to coerce defensive backs into playing the inside route and then running a short-corner route.

But he lacks elite burst, which doesn’t mesh well with a 165-pounder. He has limited wiggle for a player of his size. He’s not a deep-ball threat per se, which is okay for a slot receiver. But his change of direction can be very deliberate, which makes defending him in the slot a lot easier.

Notre Dame hasn’t gone all in seeking a pledge. Doubt they will.

SpartanMag’s Corey Robinson caught a summer workout last year, and after gushing about Anthony’s (pre-Michigan commitment) off-field maturity, he mentioned the wingspan:

Anthony has a huge wingspan for his height, something that will come in handy attacking the ball in the air.

…and named him the top guy for Spartan fans to keep an eye on:

Anthony is a smooth wide receiver who has good speed and size combination. His ability to create separation at the snap and his route running are huge strengths for him. Michigan has done a good job recruiting him early, but this is a recruitment I could see trending back towards Michigan State as their focus turns towards the 2021 class more.

(Shoot I was supposed to cut that last line. Sorry for the extra reading.)

MnB’s Jordan Simmons had the same takeaways as the Spartans after a destination was declared:

…height is about average, but he is long-limbed and has a large catch radius. Those attributes will allow him to line up on the outside, but he also has the ability to play the slot. … The best part of Anthony’s game is his ability to change direction. He snaps off his routes hard, often leaving his defender a couple feet away. Anthony can also separate from his release on the line against man press coverage.

And they later added “good ball tracking skills and body control on deep routes” as those were featured more in Anthony’s season film, and comped him to Grant Perry, another guy who’s at least two inches shorter than Anthony’s listed 6’2”.

Speed? The separation is a mark of his moves but also the level of competition—East Lansing isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of football talent. In fact speed was one of the main concerns about Anthony from all the scouts. Trieu was the most down, saying “pure straight line speed is something he can still add more of as well,” and  later “his speed is above average, but not quite to an elite level. We have some middle school track times and some hand times from camps, but nothing recent that is verifiable as far as a reliable speed time.” Others were more like “he’s not slow but,”

• MnB: “Good, not great speed and acceleration.”
• Whoever wrote the SI All-American profile: “Anthony’s lack of elite speed and acceleration is his only glaring weakness.”
• Austin Fox/Rivals: “he never got a chance to display his speed due to the fact he didn't have any yards after the catch.”

One of those “hand times” was a 4.47 reported by MLive and the Detroit News (guessing it was from the MSU camp). That got the full five FAKES in Hello as Ace pointed out DPJ ran a 4.48 at the combine. Touch the Banner wasn't as enthralled:

Overall, Anthony is a so-so prospect. When I watch him, I see Ronnie Bell minus the YAC. I like Bell as a player, but if you took away his ability to run through tackles and maintain his balance, whatever remained would be nothing special. With the talent Michigan is bringing in at receiver, I picture Anthony getting lost in the shuffle.

While Texas, whom you may recall is the school whose move to the SEC is now endangering the NCAA (cough cough) was blatantly tampering with a player signed to another school (cough cough might want to look into that?), what little came out of Michigan’s spring practice was mostly about how much they like the freshman receiver.

Andrel is very fast. He’s definitely—we always talk about speed in the receiver’s room, he’s definitely one of the faster guys in the room.

That’s the room with Roman Wilson and Mikey Sainristil and AJ Henning in it. So, maybe speed isn’t an issue anymore?

Needs to add weight: check. Anthony was 165 when a lot of those evaluations were happening, at 175 when they recorded his weight for all the sites, and 185 on the fall roster. “Slender build” was mentioned in all of these writeups. EL’s coach Bill Feraco admitted the first thing they’ll have to work on in Ann Arbor is strength.

Disrespect. One of the main reasons I think people mistook Anthony for the kind of person who might willingly associate oneself with Spartan football was the recruiting industry’s stance might have been mistaken for DISRESPEKT instead of the usual spelled-right kind. When Anthony pledged to Michigan he was the fourth-ranked wide receiver in the class (Dixon hadn’t fallen as far yet, and OH 4* Markus Allen later decommitted).

And then there’s this from Trieu to Sam Webb as they were breaking down Michigan’s class:

I get asked every year about the rankings and how we do this. We can't make them all four-stars, but every year there's a handful of three-stars that we kind of sit there and say, 'this kind of scares me keeping this guy in this range. Are we sure?' He's one of those guys for me. Those three-stars next to him name make me a little bit nervous because he's such a good athlete. Three-sport guy and the way he performed against better competition this year makes me think he's going to have a pretty good career.”

Etc. Anthony liked some tweets after last year’s upset, prompting speculation from Spartan Avenue:

There’s chatter and momentum regarding this and with teammate Ethan Boyd committed to MSU already and in his ear, this recruitment isn’t over. I wouldn’t be shocked if he made the flip and committed to Michigan State especially with the uncertainty surrounding Jim Harbaugh’s job security.

We could be seeing multiple major recruiting victories for the Spartans over Michigan in the coming weeks.

How’d that go?

Why Roy Roundtree but Tall? I’m really surprised this comp hasn’t come up already, since Treezy was another reliable target with a wide receiver’s height, hands, and catch radius, but a slot receiver’s waist. Because of that, Roundtree never really reached 200 pounds, and got bodied some bigger cornerbacks because of it, and his testing numbers precluded an NFL career. But he also set receiving records, debuting as a slot receiver as a RS freshman for Rich Rod, then moved outside under Hoke and reeled in the two biggest passes of the Michigan era he played in. You know what’s coming.

And you can’t have one without the other.

Roundtree was also mature beyond his years with an infectiously bright personality, and ended his career wearing a legendary number. Roundtree’s late decision to go to Michigan was also resented by a Big Ten bottom-feeder that saw Roundtree as one of their most important targets of the cycle.

I appended “but tall” because nobody tried to claim Tree was 6’2”. And then there’s the practice reports that say Anthony’s really fast. This all starts getting us into ridiculous comps like “Junior Hemingway but fast” or “Braylon Edwards.” Yes, Braylon was a three-star as well, but only because he was playing quarterback for Bishop Gallagher. I’m not going Braylon on a three-star. Let's be real here:

I would go Marcus Knight for those of you who can remember him, but then I was saying Roundtree reminded me of Knight in the early 2010s.

Variance: Moderate. We’ve been on this for years, but there’s a very big difference between a 3-star ranked in the range MSU can usually recruit, and a 3-star that has real interest from several middle-of-the-pack Big Ten teams. The ESPN rating would be between Quintel Kent and DJ Williamson on my comps chart; Rivals would put him in a tie with Jehu Chesson; and 247’s rating is about where Roundtree ended up.

Ceiling: High-minus. The thin frame probably precludes a true outside jump-baller. Braylon, Darboh, Hemingway, et al. came in over 200, and Cornelius Johnson was 195. Roundtree was 6’0”/154, though—Anthony is more in Kekoa Crawford’s size range. But the athleticism is legit. Watch those basketball highlights; Anthony’s body control is unreal.

General Excitement Level: High. I think Anthony should be a four-star/top-250 guy if not a bit higher. The ability to go catch a dang ball is underrated as every coach thinks he’s going to be the one to turn every raw DPJ into a finished DPJ. The truth is that happens over a long time, and often too late to have a massive impact in college. The guys who are really productive against good college defenses (the kind you can’t just body and fade) are 1) the ludicrous speedsters who demand NFL-caliber man-to-man defensive backs, and 2) the savants who require NFL-caliber zone defense. Anthony is probably the latter (I chalk up a lot of spring talk to the state of the cornerbacks). The latter can do some massive damage in college.

Projection: I’m only a teeeeeensy bit mad that Michigan made Anthony the talk of the spring because I was already really high on him and now it just looks like a layup. Even though it already sounds like Anthony is going to play this year, with the addition of Daylen Baldwin I would try to keep Andrel’s freshman impact inside the redshirt zone only because he’s the kind of player who projects to be an extremely effective upperclassman. That is going to take a change of attitude in the program, but this is a classic case where a guy, in an NIL world, might have a lot more earning power as a 5th year captain than hanging on an NFL roster in 2025. The four games can be MSU-OSU-PSU-IU if they want.

This is because even at 185 (30 pounds heavier than baby Roundtree), Anthony could use more time to bulk up. A freshman campaign probably looks like a few RPO slants and blocking. However as soon as they lose Baldwin and Bell (both could play through 2022 but may choose not to), either Anthony or Dixon likely ascends to the #3 spot outside behind Johnson and Roman Wilson, with Bell’s slot rotation snaps also up for grabs. Anthony is the more polished by far, and I think has the higher upside as well, so he would have been my pick even before the unnecessary spring chatter. Michigan has another tall slot artisan coming in next year, but Tyler Morris will also be coming off an injury, so the decks are pretty clear right now for Anthony (or Dixon) to take on a major role in 2023 if not sooner.

I expect Andrel Anthony to have a long career—three years of starting or as a major part of the rotation—possibly nestling somewhere in the top ten on all-time leaderboard thanks to volume. I am also calling Andrel Anthony Jr. my SLEEPER OF THE YEAR, if this is the spot to do it, and add a prediction that we haven’t seen his last 100-yard game in East Lansing.