When a program hires a new football coach, the first high school recruiting class – the class of 2026 in this case – is more a reflection of the previous staff. The new coach is often just trying to hold the group together and hang on to commitments.
Here, the real value of the new coach’s recruiting ability can better be judged by the 2026 transfer portal and the 2027 high school recruiting classes.
Writing for The Athletic earlier this month, Antonio Morales described Bob Chesney’s recruiting success
as he takes over at UCLA. Here, we attempt to compare Chesney to the Big Ten’s three other new coaching hires: Pat Fitzgerald at Michigan State, Kyle Whittingham at Michigan, and Matt Campbell at Penn State.
UCLA attempts to replicate Indiana’s success with Curt Cignetti
Two years ago, Indiana hired Curt Cignetti away from James Madison and we all watched him use the transfer portal to help orchestrate arguably the fastest, most impressive turnaround in sports history.
Like Cignetti, Chesney worked his way up through the NCAA’s lower divisions. He won at Salve Regina (D3), Assumption (D2), and Holy Cross (FCS) before getting his first D1 opportunity at James Madison, where he went 21-6 over two seasons.
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald, Whittingham, and Campbell are long-tenured Power 4 Division 1 coaches.
Chesney has spent his career figuring out how to build competitive rosters with fewer resources. Fitzgerald did the same thing at Northwestern, at least when compared to most of the rest of the Big Ten, but he hasn’t led a college program since 2022.
When Fitzgerald last coached:
- Unlimited player transfers didn’t exist
- NIL collectives were just getting started
- Revenue sharing with players was yet to begin
Fitzgerald has said that he used the time between 2022 and 2026 to get a PhD in the new era of college football but you have to wonder if there is any type of culture shock going on in East Lansing. He relied on a player development model for 17 years at Northwestern and, while this is hopefully still a factor in winning football games, navigating the “wild-west” portal era seems like a clash in philosophies.
If Fitzgerald and Chesney represent the ends of the spectrum then Whittingham and Campbell are the stable middle. Whittingham sustained two decades of success at Utah while Campbell worked to grind out tough wins at Iowa State for ten years.
New Coach Recruiting Comparison
The table below compares the 2026 and 2027 Big Ten recruiting rankings for Michigan State, Michigan, Penn State, and UCLA according to On3 and gives an overall trajectory of each new coaching staff’s initial recruiting efforts:
Chesney inherited a 16th-ranked 2026 recruiting class but, so far, has produced the Big Ten’s second-ranked portal class and fourth-ranked 2027 high school class. A lot can change regarding the 2027 class, and it remains to be seen how many of these players actually end up signing, but this has to be a sign of positive momentum on the recruiting trail for Chesney and UCLA.
Chesney also had, by far, the biggest impact of the four coaches in the 2026 portal cycle. The next table shows each program’s net portal gains and losses for 2026, according to On3:
UCLA has completely overhauled their roster with 42 incoming transfers while MSU experienced a net loss of nine players and ranks near the bottom of the conference. Interestingly, it’s Whittingham and Michigan that occupy the bottom spot in the portal rankings but the Wolverines probably aren’t facing the same immediate pressure to overhaul their roster in order to contend in 2026.
Campbell hasn’t made a lot of inroads in the portal either but, after a disastrous 2026 high school recruiting cycle for Penn State, has so far moved the Nittany Lions back into the top third of the conference in the 2027 high school rankings.
Whittingham has basically maintained Michigan’s high school recruiting success for 2027 while Fitzgerald has done the same at Michigan State. The problem – Michigan State still sits in the bottom third of the conference in high school recruiting rankings.
While each program is looking for its first 5-star commitment for 2027, according to the On3 rankings (as of May 16), the Spartans are the only team of the four who have yet to land a 4-star commitment:
Conclusion
Chesney’s early tenure at UCLA seems to be a “how-to” in modern roster management. He has used the portal for an immediate rebuild and started to build a foundation through the 2027 high school class.
Whittingham appears to be on cruise control at Michigan while Campbell salvages a rough situation at Penn State and starts to set his own foundation in 2027.
In addition to earning his modern college football PhD, Fitzgerald has also stated that there will not be a more motivated coach in America in 2026 and he is clearly excited to be back on the sideline. Still, depending on how much faith one puts in the recruiting rankings, the Spartans sit in a tough position before they even suit up for a game with Fitzgerald at the helm.
MSU appears to be trailing in the portal and struggling to gain traction in the 2027 recruiting cycle, suggesting a steeper hill to climb than Spartans fans might be hoping for. If Michigan State is going to get out of the hole they’ve been stuck in since Mark Dantonio retired, Fitzgerald will need to lean on his player development experience, as Dantonio did at MSU – albeit in a different era – and hope that eventually leads to a better product on the field and ultimately more excitement on the recruiting trail.
