Michigan State Makes Final Four for 3-Star Wide Receiver Jayden Stephens

Via social media, 3-star wide receiver Jayden Stephens announced that he has limited his choice of schools to his final four teams.

Of those final four teams is Michigan State, along with Nebraska, Minnesota and Pat Fitzgerald’s old team, Northwestern.

The Spartans have pursued Stephens since June 16, when they hosted him at a Michigan State camp, resulting in Stephens being one of five players to receive an offer from Pat Fitzgerald.

Stephens is a 6-foot, 180-pound receiver in the 2028 class who currently plays for Waverly-Shell Rock High School in Waverly, Iowa.

There’s never a time too early to build a foundation in college football. As many know, collegiate athletics has turned into a wild, wild west of where players will go and how much teams are paying them. A league is trying to find a way to correctly facilitate newly involved NIL money, along with coaches trying to adapt not only to an NIL league, but also a league where no player is safe via the annual transfer portal.

You can run from the future, adapt to it, or do both. The third door is what Fitzgerald seems to be choosing as he continues to push hard not only for recruits coming in next year, but also players for the Spartans down the road.

Now, with the transfer portal and loyalty issues forming in young men’s minds because of the portal and a “grass is greener” mentality among the youth, who knows how any of this will actually play out?

But for now, the Spartans do rank in the top four for Stephens.

Officially being listed by 247Sports as an athlete, due to Stephens’ ability to do it all on the field, he’s being recruited primarily by Courtney Hawkins, the Michigan State wide receivers coach. That shows the idea Fitzgerald and his staff have in store for the position group moving forward.

Speaking of 247Sports, diving into their rankings, Stephens sits as the 19th-best athlete in the 2028 class so far, though keep in mind that not every 2028 prospect has a ranking yet.

Stephens also ranks as the fourth-best athlete in Iowa in the class. This all comes with an 89 rating, which does list him as a 3-star via 247Sports. However, with it being on the verge of a 90, which would garner a 4-star label, it’s truly a give-or-take situation between 3-star and 4-star. Stephens could easily be viewed as a 3.9-star recruit at this point.

Via his composite score of 0.8750, Stephens ranks as the 474th national recruit in the 2028 class, the 37th-ranked athlete and the sixth-best recruit from Iowa.

This score drops him more into the 3-star process, but again, that’s up to the eyes of the beholder.

The Spartans, though, are in the final four for a player who could open up a position group that seems like the weak point of a team not only this season, but possibly the next few as well.

That will depend on some of the incoming freshmen, but regardless, for Stephens, if the 3-star recruit is looking for a room that will be wide open for the taking, East Lansing might be the perfect fit.

For Michigan State, getting into Stephens’ final four this early in the recruiting process is another sign of Fitzgerald and his staff building toward the future.

The Spartans still have plenty of work to do before Stephens makes his final decision, but for now, Michigan State has put itself in position to remain a serious contender for one of the 2028 class’ intriguing wide receiver prospects.