Allen Trieu
| Special to The Detroit News
Michigan State will have an Ohio-heavy recruiting visitor list for Saturday’s game against Ohio State.
The highest-ranked of the group expected to attend so far is Painesville Harvey running back Shahn Alston, a top-10 back in the country per 247Sports. Harvey has not had a Power Four recruit in over a decade, but colleges know where to find Alston now. He has 23 offers, with the list growing seemingly each week.
He is on pace to eclipse his sophomore mark of 1,042 yards and 15 touchdowns, and stepped in as a freshman on varsity and rushed for 675 yards and 15 touchdowns the season before that while also recording 39 tackles, five sacks and two interceptions on defense.
“He was definitely a come-in-and-play-right-away guy,” Harvey head coach Mick Mohner said. “We had another running back who was a junior when he was a freshman, so we were able to have a two-headed monster with those two. He really did a lot of nice things. He wasn’t the main back, but we utilized him in the wing set, had him block and he caught more passes, then became the feature back last year.”
Now a compact 5-foot-9, 195 pounds, Alston stepped into high school built like an older player, which helped him contribute right away. Mohner says he also had an understanding of the game that was beyond his years, understood how to use his size, and was willing to do whatever his coaches asked of him, including playing both sides of the ball.
Since then, he has built upon that early success and continues to improve his game.
“I think he’s a guy that will, whatever his weaknesses are, he will find a way to combat those and turn them into strengths,” Mohner said. “His freshman and sophomore years, he was a little bit heavier, even pudgy at times. This offseason, he really trimmed down. Last year he was 205 pounds; this year, he’s at 195 pounds and that extra muscle that he put on by dropping some weight and slimming down is producing a little more wiggle. This coming year, the things he will work on are first-step quickness, work on increasing that and get to an even more comfortable weight.”
Alston has visited Wisconsin this season. He camped with Penn State at the end of July and was offered. USC is working on getting him to campus, West Virginia, Michigan and others are also recruiting him hard. Michigan State fits into that group, and the staff’s diligence has paid off in getting him to visit.
“They started recruiting him early last year and seemed to really be interested in him,” said Rahshahn Alston, his father and Harvey assistant coach. “They’ve been in constant contact with him and us being Michigan fans originally, it intrigued Shahn to see the other side of it. Growing up, it was pretty one-sided on Michigan, but when we did our digging into Michigan State, we saw that he would definitely be interested in exploring them further.”
Rahshahn and his wife Erin’s advice to Shahn was to make a four-year decision. Their ideal situation is to commit to a school fully and not have to worry about the transfer portal. They are looking for where he can be developed into an NFL player, but also where they can entrust their son with coaches who will instill morals and values that align with their own. Of course, getting an education is also a major part of that.
Michigan State hopes to show the Alstons they are the place for that. That process will continue this Saturday.
But for his part, Alston is taking a measured approach and is not expected to commit any time soon.
“He’s handling it better than I would have,” Mohner said “I know personally, I wouldn’t have been able to handle it the way he’s handled it, just the constant grind of every day talking to coaches, texts, e-mails, calls, and he takes it all in stride. He’s not leaving any option off the table and wants to evaluate all of the options. He doesn’t let it go to his head. He pushes some of our guys on what it takes to get to the next level. He didn’t get there by accident. Everything he’s gotten, he’s worked for. There haven’t been a lot of big-time recruits at Harvey. I think the last one was Chris Fields in the ‘09 class who went to Ohio State, but now our younger guys can see it can happen right here at Harvey. Those kids and guys in Shahn’s class have upped their game in the weight room. He’s a program-changing guy for us and I’m thrilled to have had him for three years.”
247Sports ranks Alston the No. 112 overall prospect in the class and the No. 5 junior in Ohio.
Additional Saturday visitors
Two big visitors from Ohio joining Alston are Warren Harding linebacker/edge-rusher Chaz Coleman and Lakota East tight end PJ MacFarlane.
MacFarlane was offered at the Spartans’ summer camp in June and is making his return to campus. Illinois, Indiana and others also are pursuing the athletic 6-foot-5, 215-pound MacFarlane.
Coleman is a senior riser who has impressed schools with his athleticism in a 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame. He has played quarterback and some schools like him as a tight end, but others are recruiting him on defense.
Kentucky, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech and others have offered in the last month.
More information
Shahn Alston profile
Chaz Coleman profile
P.J. MacFarlane profile
Allen Trieu covers Midwest football recruiting for 247Sports. He has been featured on the Big Ten Network on its annual Signing Day Show. His Michigan and Michigan State recruiting columns appear weekly at detroitnews.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 05:20:00
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