Bai Jobe made the decision to transfer from Michigan State football earlier this week, ending the former top-75 prospects time in East Lansing. While disappointing for fans, it is not the end of the world for the new staff coming into Michigan State.
Jobe, for one, was not their blue chip recruit. He committed to a different staff in East Lansing and there were fresh relationships that have had to of been established. If this was Smith and co.’s recruit, this is a different story.
Further, Jobe, as many knew, needed a ton of work and development to ever see the field in the green and white. Not that this is a problem, but the want to play early in his career wasn’t a viable option, and the new staff told him that.
Finally, the scheme fit was not there with Joe Rossi’s defense and a guy like Jobe. Within the 4-2-5/3-3-5 hybrid the Spartans will play, one defensive end will be more of a OLB/DE hybrid, that will need pass coverage skills. Jobe does not have that. The other DE will need to be strong in the run game, provided an anchoring support to his defensive linemates. Jobe does not have that skill.
Ultimately, Jobe would have had a ceiling of being a third down pass rush specialist, and that is something he may be very good at one day, but for the desire to further his career, he needed the change of sceneray.
For MSU, while losing a highly touted prospect looks bad on surface, this decision is perfectly okay, as the scheme fit was not there, and it was not their recruit, thus making it a lot easier to swallow.