EAST LANSING — As they cycled through a battery of drills Wednesday, Michigan State football’s 15 NFL hopefuls could see the light.
The sun filtered through the windows inside the Duffy Daugherty building, illuminating patches of turf during the Spartans’ annual pro day and offering some fitting imagery for a program that has since emerged from the period of darkness that had eclipsed it only a year ago.
Back then, MSU still operated in the shadows as head coach Mel Tucker continued the rebuilding project he launched upon his hiring in 2020. This same event, which doubles as a marketing showcase for Michigan State, was held behind closed doors last March as the COVID-19 pandemic raged.
The Spartans soon vanished from the NFL’s radar, slipping into the deep waters of oblivion. During the 2021 draft, no MSU players were selected for the first time since 1940. It was a stinging indictment of a program that endured a precipitous decline in the final years of Tucker’s…