Michigan State football's want to win recruiting in Ohio again. Brian Wozniak leads charge

EAST LANSING — One of Brian Wozniak’s first memories of Spartan Stadium came from the sidelines during one of the most iconic plays in Michigan State football history.

A night game Oct. 22, 2011. The play call: “Rocket,” a Hail Mary from Kirk Cousins to Keith Nichol off a ricochet and stretch as time expired for the game-winning touchdown.

The result: A 37-31 Spartan victory. And anguish for the young tight end standing on the stunned and defeated Wisconsin sideline.

“The battles against Michigan State I've tried to forget,” Wozniak recalled Thursday, “just because they're so painful.”

Now nearly 13 years later, Wozniak has traded the Badger red and white for a green Gruff Sparty hat and MSU hoodie. And his missions are to get the Spartans’ tight ends back to making big plays as a position coach and reestablish connections to his home state Ohio as recruiting coordinator and one of Jonathan Smith’s assistant coaches with Midwest ties.

“For me, it's just every day, you come in with a smile because because you kind of back in these roots,” said Wozniak, a native of Loveland, Ohio, a bit northeast of Cincinnati. “My family's coming up this weekend, we got another set of family coming up next weekend. We just we didn't get that luxury when we were out west.”

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Over the past few years, the Spartans’ efforts in Ohio have dwindled.

Of the 54 high school players signed by former MSU coach Mel Tucker — a Cleveland native — in his first three recruiting classes in 2021, 2022 and 2023, just two were from Ohio and both Michael Gravely and A.J. Kirk quickly transferred out of the program. The Spartans’ 2024 class, a patchwork hybrid borne from Tucker’s staff and the early work of Smith and his assistants, had three more in twin offensive linemen Charlton and Mercer Luniewski from Cincinnati (both of whom enrolled in January) and wide receiver Austin Clay from Cleveland (who will arrive this summer).

MSU has yet to land a commitment for its 2025 class, but Ohio has become a significant priority for him and Wozniak, who spent the past six seasons at Oregon State under Smith and three years before that there as a graduate assistant from 2015-17.

“I go back to thinking of when this place was rolling. A lot of that roster was obviously Michigan guys, the bulk, but there was a lot of Ohio guys in bulk, too,” Wozniak said. “You can't take everybody on Michigan, you can't take everybody Ohio and the surrounding areas. But we want to be aggressive in those areas. So that's been fun, diving into it and looking into it and kind of showing what this place can be. …

“I think it's been good, a lot of, 'Hey, it's great to see Sparty back in the schools.' Old stories and being able to mix it up. Sometimes I got some connections to that coach that neither of us knew before going into the school. So it's been fun that way. And I think it's been good, kind of painting these Midwest states in green a little bit, letting those guys know, hey, we're here and we're ready to hum.”

Recruiting Ohio wasn’t the only reason Smith brought Wozniak with him from Oregon State. The job he did coaxing the most out of Beavers’ tight ends had plenty to do with coming to MSU.

In 2019, Noah Togiai became the sixth OSU tight end in school history with 1,000-plus receiving yards and earned Pac-12 honorable mention. Teagan Quitoriano followed the next two seasons, earning honorable mention All-Pac-12 and becoming as a 2022 fifth-round pick of the Houston Texans. Luke Musgrave emerged as a 2023 second-round pick of the Green Bay Packers and started nine games last season as a rookie. And also in the 2022 season, Jack Velling earned Freshman All-America honorable mention.

Velling earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors as his eight touchdown catches tied for the most among tight ends in the Football Bowl Championship Subdivision regular season. Then when Smith and Wozniak left for MSU, the 6-foot-5, 246-pound Seattle native decided to follow them east for his final two seasons of eligibility.

“Coach Woz, I think he's one of the best in the business,” said Velling, who had 45 receptions for 719 yards and 11 TDs the past two seasons at Oregon State. “He’s put out a bunch of tight ends to the NFL. I thought why change, why take a risk? Staying with him, I thought, was the best decision.”

Velling becomes the most experienced tight end with the Spartans after the outbound transfers of Maliq Carr and Evan Morris. MSU’s other tight ends are young, with third-year sophomres Michael Masaunas and Jack Nickel along with second-year sophomore Brennan Parachek, who is banged up this spring.

“Really as a group, each of them have different days of making some plays,” Smith said of the tight ends. “Obviously with Velling knowing the offense a little bit, he's been out there and helping those guys come along.”

It’s a position Wozniak played at Wisconsin, where four of his six catches as a senior in 2013 went for touchdowns. MSU won three of the four meetings against him and the Badgers, the other two in 2010 and 2012. His one victory came less than two months after that “Rocket” game in 2011, with Wisconsin winning the inaugural Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis.

Wozniak said MSU was one of the first teams to recruit him out of Loveland High, though Mark Dantonio’s program took Dion Sims instead in that recruiting cycle. Wozniak instead went to play for Bret Bielema and then Gary Anderson at Wisconsin from 2009-13.

“I remember a lot about this place,” Wozniak said. “Dang good teams, tough teams, blue-collar teams. Kind of right up our alley. ... Those were those were awesome games, right? Those are Big Ten games, what it's all about.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football TE coach Brian Wozniak looking to recruit Ohio