Cass Tech's Mangham picks Colorado over Michigan State
Detroit Cass Tech four-star running back Jaren Mangham took his first official visit to Colorado a little more than a month ago and obviously he enjoyed the trip.
Mangham announced on Twitter Tuesday night that he plans to attend and play football at Colorado, picking the Buffaloes over Michigan State, Oregon, Tennessee and several other schools.
In fact, Mangham had 57 offers, including one from national champion Alabama and another from Clemson.
Many thought that MSU was a legitimate threat to bring in Mangham since he was best friends with Spartans freshman defensive back Kalon Gervin and had taken multiple trips to East Lansing to visit him. It didn’t happen.
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Others thought that Mangham would return home to play for Texas, TCU or Texas A&M, but that didn’t happen, either. He had lived the majority of his younger years in Texas before moving north to attend high school.
But, in the end the Colorado coaching staff won him over. Well, that and the fact he could find himself starting his freshman year. He plans to graduate in December from Cass Tech and enroll at Colorado in January.
“The coaching staff at Colorado showed me so much love and they told me how they were going to utilize me, exactly what I was going to do,” Mangham told The Detroit News. “They told me I could go in there and start as a freshman and that’s always important. It just felt like home.
“They said I’d be a running back and they’d used me in the passing game out of the slot so really an all-purpose back.”
Mangham, 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds with 4.6 40 speed, said he is fully healthy after suffering an ankle injury in the season opener last year and being hampered by the injury throughout the season.
“It’s completely healed,” said Mangham, who will share the backfield duties with three-star back Lew Nichols, who also has multiple offers, including West Virginia, Missouri, Minnesota and Purdue. “I feel great, a lot faster and more explosive. I feel like I’m back to my old self, just 10 times better.”
Mangham said it was difficult to say no to such coaches as MSU’s Mark Dantonio.
“It was very difficult, a very hard decision since I had so many great schools,” Mangham said. “I had over 50 offers, 57 to be exact and everything was so crazy. There were so many great universities, but I just felt Colorado was the best fit for me.”
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