Trieu: Interest swells for Birmingham Groves star, Michigan State target Jaden Mangham
Birmingham Groves’ Jaden Mangham is only just finishing his sophomore year, but is one of the more sought-after recruits in the state of Michigan.
Since the start of April, Mangham has added 17 new scholarship offers thanks to several factors including a growth spurt and work ethic.
“He is a hard worker for sure,” said Reggie Wynns of Rising Stars Recruiting, where Mangham has trained. “He has a high ceiling, athletic ability and he is a student-athlete as well. His growth potential is unbelievable. He is 6-foot-3 right now. His ceiling, I’m not sure what it’s going to be or when that’s going to be, but it is going to be very good. He can do any position, wide receiver, cornerback, safety; it all depends on how he grows. He might even be a linebacker.”
That multi-positional ability and length — currently one of the recruiting buzzwords as far as what colleges want in a prospect — make Mangham a blue-chip recruit.
“I'm being recruited at both equally and I'm willing to play either receiver or defensive back in college,” Mangham said. “I just want to continue to work hard and improve my skill sets and have an opportunity to showcase them this season.”
One of the schools that offered during this rush was Michigan State.
Mangham’s older brother Jaren was recruited by, and played for some of the Spartan staff as a true freshman at Colorado last season. As a result, Jaden and his family have welcomed the coaches into their home, and visited with them on campus.
“My family and I know Coach (Mel) Tucker and the staff that came with him from Colorado pretty well,” he said.
During quarantine, Jaren has been home, and the brothers have worked out together and discussed recruiting. While they are close and Jaden has his older brother to lean on, he also makes it clear that his recruitment will be his own.
“He just shared with me the ups and downs of recruiting, what to look for when talking with coaches and to make sure I control my process and no else does,” Jaden said. “He also stressed the importance of going and visiting the campus, My dad always tells the coach if you make a commitment by offering my son then (we) will make a commitment to come and visit the campus. I'm making it my own process because I play completely different positions than my brother, so what he was looking for in a college is not the same things I’m looking for. Our skill sets are totally different. It’s all about building relationships.”
Michigan State and Michigan are two of the schools Mangham says he keeps in contact with, but with the interest increasing, he juggles many relationships. He also has regular conversations with Oregon, Florida State, Nebraska, West Virginia, Washington State, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Duke, Florida, Wisconsin and Tennessee.
He will attempt to visit as many schools as he can once the dead period ends.
Until then, he will continue to do what brought him here, keep a variety of relationships with college coaches and work on improving his game.
“He is a great kid who loves what he does,” Wynns said. “He loves football.”
247Sports ranks Mangham the No. 9 rising junior in the state of Michigan.
MSU commit lands SEC offer
Hampton Fay, Michigan State’s quarterback commit in the 2021 class, was offered Monday by Ole Miss.
Fay (6-5, 210 pounds) committed to the Spartans at the end of April.
He had offers from Boston College, Indiana, Illinois and more at the time of his commitment.
Fay told 247Sports following the Ole Miss offer that he was still committed to Michigan State, but would research new schools who contact his coach.
Spartans offer freshman OL
Michigan State has offered a scholarship to Antonio Tripp, a freshman at Owings Mills (Maryland) McDonogh School.
The 6-foot-4, 285-pound Tripp has seven offers in total. Maryland, Michigan and Penn State the other Big Ten programs who have offered.
Offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic is recruiting Tripp for MSU and extended the offer.
More information
Allen Trieu covers Midwest football recruiting for 247Sports. He has been featured on the Big Ten Network on its annual Signing Day Show. His Michigan and Michigan State recruiting columns appear weekly at detroitnews.com.
