Wisconsin RB Jalen Berger transfers to MSU
For the rest of the world who aren't playing for conference and potentially national titles, the off-season is basically here. As we've already seen, that means players and coaches heading to new places.
Berger was a 4 star, top 150 player as a RB out of HS from NJ. He rushed for 300 yards on 60 carries as a freshman last year and was expected to be their RB of the future. Instead, he allegedly got upset when Wisconsin brought in a transfer RB from Clemson and ended up only playing in 3 games, rushing 24 times for 88 yards. 15 of those carries and 62 of those yards were against EMU, and his last game was against Michigan when he had 8 carries for 18 yards.
After the Michigan game he was dismissed from Wisconsin for clashing with the coaching staff about playing time and the Clemson transfer, and now he's headed to EL. Because of the COVID year last year he'll still technically be a RS FR next year, but I have a hard time believing he comes anywhere close to Walker's production this year.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:44 PM ^
I'd be way more worried about an insanely productive player from a lesser conference like Walker. Berger's already had the UW o-line to run behind and wasn't a world beater so not sure how he's going to get way better behind MSU's.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:48 PM ^
Absolutely. KWIII amassed crazy stats behind that leaky sieve MSU calls an o-line. He ran all over us despite us living in their backfield. That's crazy talent.
This kid was blah behind the meatiest man movers north of the Mason Dixon line. And now he's gonna run behind Sparty's dudes? Good luck lol
November 29th, 2021 at 3:48 PM ^
KW3 is really good but they got us on tempo for a lot of his yards. Plays on which the line wasn't even set or the wrong guys were out there. MacDonald was baptized by fire on that one. If we played them again, especially if it was at home, he wouldn't be half as productive.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
It's weird though because Walker was very workman-like at WF based on his stats at least. Can't say I actually analyzed his film. But he didn't even get the majority of carries. But all in all, I tend to think don't count on transfers to hit at a high level consistantly, unless it's some crazy already proven 5 star that is transferring for other reasons
November 29th, 2021 at 4:14 PM ^
"It's weird though because Walker was very workman-like at WF based on his stats at least."
This exactly. And all the 'credit' being given to Tucker for 'finding him' - uh...based on WHAT? Total luck?
November 29th, 2021 at 2:58 PM ^
I don't recall a soul here being worried about KW3 last year when he transferred "from a lesser conference". So this is a hindsight comment.
No idea if this guy will be any good but it is clear Tucker will process people left and right and put as many chips on the table to see if 1 hits. He brought in 3 transfer RBs last year - one hit. That's all it takes.
Berger averaged 5.8, 6.2, and 5.8 in 3 Big 10 games in the COVID season (a good Indiana team, a good NW team, and a not good UM team). No shame bringing in a guy who averaged 5.5+ in B10 play. It's not a lesser conference.
Ironically the guy was upset a transfer came in and took his time. Yet he is doing the same...
The best part of this news is it means Walker is leaving. That guy is a stud.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:03 PM ^
I didn't know anything about KWIII before the season and I watch a TON of college football but some folks, possibly even Seth, mentioned him as one of the transfers to watch. Seems like KWIII wanted to get more visibility. Berger is moving on because he got passed.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
KW3 got less carries than a guy named Christian Beal in 2020 @ Wake. So he "got passed" it seemed. Or was not appreciated. Or whatever.
This dude went into the portal after 4 games so who would know how it would turn out. Wiscy sucked at the beginning of the year.
Again - acquire as many chips as you can. If a few hit, you are good. Their backups to Walker all seemed a big drop off. It's a different way of doing things. I will be curious how many spots they have open to do this with. And how it turns out in 3 years when everyone signed up know they have about 18 months to perform or Tucker will transfer in a guy to take your place.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:31 PM ^
Ironically the guy was upset a transfer came in and took his time. Yet he is doing the same...
Perfect fit to play under Tucker then
November 29th, 2021 at 4:17 PM ^
I think Tucker can only bring in seven transfers, so he can't get rid of too many guys.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:19 PM ^
People who paid attention were aware of Walker. He was the number 1 returning running to PFF. He left Wake Forrest because he thought he was a bad fit for their offense and Wake was not happy and thought he was a star. This wasn't unearthing a gem it was signing a star free agent.
November 29th, 2021 at 5:23 PM ^
That's fair. Maybe it's more "I'm confident MSU won't pick up a Heisman candidate two years in a row," especially with that O-line. You never know, our D-line will need to replace some key pieces next year as well.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:46 PM ^
Obviously Mel is gonna go the portal route for his key player pickups. Time will tell whether that works for him or not.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:17 PM ^
The portal was a nice filler and he hit on Walker. No shame in that.
But using it as a year-over-year approach to recruiting? Not sure how many of "his guys" will wait that out.
Looking forward to the "X MSU player enters transfer portal" stories shortly after reading the "X player transfers to MSU from the portal".
November 29th, 2021 at 2:48 PM ^
Wasn't he the guy who pulled a knife on his teammate? Or was he the guy who had the knife pulled on him? Either way, he should fit right in at East Lansing.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:59 PM ^
True, but maybe not quite as well as if he had pulled a knife on a couch which lay smoldering on his porch as it (the couch) delivered his pizza.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
None of the above. Different set of Wisconsin RBs
November 29th, 2021 at 7:58 PM ^
It's best to just throw out some casual slander and let the details sort themselves out
November 29th, 2021 at 3:14 PM ^
Wrong two players.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
Miami University of the North
November 29th, 2021 at 3:57 PM ^
You mean University of Miami of the north
Miami University of the north is just Miami University
November 29th, 2021 at 2:48 PM ^
I'm sure Berger will be fine but continuously trying to fill major holes via transfer is not the way to build a sustainable team. We went down that road with QBs and for every great one you find there are others that are on your team because they could not hack it elsewhere...
November 29th, 2021 at 3:43 PM ^
I think it depends how it looks going forward. How Tucker did it this last offseason - that will work. As long as the coach is solid and gets players to buy in, you can take your team from bad to good by just upgrading talent. Can you go from good to great by bringing in 10+ players every offseason? No, you've still gotta develop the talent you have. But getting a couple guys here and there will be fine.
I don't think Berger would have a Walker like impact - he hasn't shown himself that good yet. But he's a talented player. New scenery might help him.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:48 PM ^
It will be interesting to see how MSU and Tucker handle the transfer portal. Although Dantonio used the JUCO quite often to solidify position groups, for that whole era, their strategy was hold onto players and develop. That didn't work out so well by the end of the tenure I think MSUs roster was not in great shape when Tucker arrived. So I totally understand his hitting the portal hard for this past year. But it will be interesting to see if that continues or if it becomes less of a focus.
Also with such free transfers will be interesting to see how transfers in general work out. Pre-portal, transfers tended to not work out well, and I think as a whole that will still be a trend. But with national recruiting and easy movement, I think the transfer portal will be a much more viable path to getting quick developed talent. I hope UM uses it smartly as well.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:05 PM ^
It worked great this year. Takes about 3 years for your recruiting classes to translate. Rather than sit and take a 5-7 season he went portaling during the bridge years. 10 wins in year 2 - lucky or not - everyone there would take that for a 2nd year coach forget a normal season.
What will be curious to me is how the freshmen feel if Tucker does this every year - he is recruiting well now but in 3 years if he replaces 30 guys every year with portals what does it say to me as a freshman? I know the answer is "hey its put up or shut up" but as we saw here early that only seems to work at Bama and a place or 2 else. Processing 40-50% of your classes every year by year end of year 2 is going to be interesting. But it's the SEC style he is bringing.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:23 PM ^
You'll have to excuse my transfer portal ignorance here, but going forward, I thought you were only allowed 7 per year? I thought the ruling came out in October of 2021 that you are allowed 25 signing day recruits + 7 transfers from the portal per year. Is that correct? Again, just asking out of curiosity.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:43 PM ^
I believe you can sign up to 7 transfers (1 for each transfer your program loses). So if you lose 20, you can only replace 7 of them in addition to the 25 recruits you sign.
MSU lost 27 transfers last season and brought in 15 (plus a recruiting class of 26) for 41 new players from the previous season. If this 7 limits things (vs. 15), wonder if that will have a major effect on Spartans.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:17 PM ^
As I understand it, the new rule allows teams to replace up to seven departing transfers above the 25-new-player limit (as long as they're under the 85 scholarship maximum). I don't think it precludes a team from adding more than 7 players if their incoming scholarship class is less than 25 players.
November 29th, 2021 at 5:13 PM ^
Could be accurate. BUT what is a coaching strategy is to say you know I like to see what guys can do in college football vs taking a high risk chance of a HS player esp if I dont get the top 200 type of guys. Does the ratio change? i.e. is 7 a hard limit. Or can I do 18 out of HS and take those extra 7 and make it 14 a year portal?
I don't know if that is allowed. Would love to see the 7 hard limit rule link.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:48 PM ^
player dismissed from the squad for clashing with coaches (discipline issues) going to MSU.... should be a good fit.
November 29th, 2021 at 2:51 PM ^
A running back with a poor attitude? Sounds right up MSU's alley.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:21 PM ^
He's going to be on the Glenn Winston Memorial Scholarship.
November 30th, 2021 at 12:35 PM ^
Yaaaassssss
November 29th, 2021 at 2:54 PM ^
Gotta figure it should be a hard sale to be a 4* or better recruit and msu offers you, they'll just transfer in guys to move ahead of you at any position any time.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:01 PM ^
MSU is quickly becoming the new "Last Chance U"
November 29th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
Hundred bucks says Zach Evans ends up there eventually.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:06 PM ^
Maybe the title should say EX-Wisconsin RB transfers to MSU.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:09 PM ^
This is a big fat nothing-berger.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:16 PM ^
Great now I get to see my last name on the Michigan State jersey. Bullshit
November 29th, 2021 at 3:17 PM ^
Meh. I think Walker was an absolute anomaly that covered a multitude of sins for Tucker(and made him a lot of money). My gut tells me MSU comes back down to earth next year with games against Michigan, OSU, PSU, Wisconsin and Minnesota, not to mention Washington and Indiana as wild cards.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:32 PM ^
Walker ran 119 times for 579 yards and 13 TDs for Wake last year. That's a solid 4.9 ypc average in a decent conference for a team that probably had a worse offensive line than MSU.
The other back ran 142 times for 732 and 5TDs. (5.2 ypc). So they were pretty similar, at least last year.
Obviously Wake was not utilizing Walker correctly.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:43 PM ^
Sorry, Jalen. 'Tis the season. But we've got no room at the Cottage Inn.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:54 PM ^
Congrats to Mel on finding a creative way to make college football more like the NFL, much of the catalyst there being last year's Covid rules.
Unfortunately for MSU, blue chip, non-regional programs will soon copy the model and process any 4 and 5 stars that aren't producing and bring in their own crop of transfers.
Mel will soon be competing with the SEC for these players, and once again MSU will be left with the bottom of the barrel.
November 29th, 2021 at 3:58 PM ^
Yep, feels like Mel was playing moneyball and exploiting an inefficiency in the market created by new rules. The big boys will figure it all out quickly and do the same.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
I think Michigan fans over rate Tuckers use of portal. The starters they got are:
RB Kenneth Walker. Top rated returning runningback to PFF. No a gem but saved Tucker's year.
LB Quavarius Crouch. He seemed like he did at Tenn. Mehhhh.
CB Ronald Williams: Part of the worst pass defense in history?
CB Chester Kimbrough. Part of the worst pass rush in history.
Obviously depth matters but can we stop tripping over ourself to praise this guy?
November 29th, 2021 at 5:07 PM ^
Who is praising him? I'm saying he heavily used the transfer portal to shore us a bad roster. That will become harder to do as the bigger schools put more resources towards the portal.
Mel had early movers advantage. Now that people see what can be done with it, guys like Walker will have more people fighting over them.
November 29th, 2021 at 5:19 PM ^
They also got a starting LT Horst who solidified their line until he dropped out due to apparently some mental issues late in the year.
Reed was also a transfer from the MAC but that's a Dantoni special.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:01 PM ^
Are there Health/Injury Issues with Berger?
(Noted this previously on the blog before the Wisconsin game....)
In one of the UW pods leading up to the season / our game a host made an off-hand comment about Berger and a "chronic condition" with his leg(s).
This stuck with me because he was highly rated out of NJ and was on the radar of M, PSU, and OSU with additional "offers" from Oregon, 'Bama and several other SEC schools. During the process M. PSU, and OSU all went after other RBs and stopped pursuing Berger. (PSU and OSU signees were rated lower than Berger fwiw.)
Berger was available late and didn't commit and sign until Jan 2020 at which point his leaders were Wisconsin, Rutgers, with maybe UCLA and MSU also in play
UW is a hell of a destination for a RB but this was not UW (and now MSU) beating out M, PSU and OSU for a recruit.
That said, I hope Mr. Berger stays healthy, keeps out of trouble, and racks up HUGE rushing numbers while losing every game to M and competing for 3rd or 4th place in the East on a consistent basis.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:30 PM ^
I thought Berger was a little overrated.