Horne decides for Michigan State

Milwaukee (Wisc.) Bradley Tech running back Marcus Horne had his eye on Michigan State since early in his recruitment, but the 5-10, 190-pound back had to exercise patience as he waited for the Spartans to evaluate him.

Initially, Horne was offered a preferred walk-on position at Michigan State, but last week that became a scholarship opportunity and Horne followed it up with an official visit to East Lansing this weekend.

"Coach [Brad] Salem said a lot of inspirational things and he wanted me to be a part of the family, so that kind of propelled me to my decision," Horne said.

Horne likely be grayshirted, meaning he will wait a semester before enrolling in the school, but the final details of when he will enroll will be ironed out this week.

"We're going to talk more in-depth about it tomorrow, but most likely it will be in January," he said.

Michigan State's interest in Horne was spiked this past summer when he attended their summer camp in East Lansing. From that point the two parties kept in touch and Horne and his family began looking more closely at the school.

"My uncle stays in Detroit, so I've got family there," Horne said. "Then, my aunt is great friends with Andre Rison and me and him have talked. He played football and basketball at Michigan State and he's always saying positive things about it and that it's great to be a Spartan.

"My mom likes it there and she likes that I have family there. They have great academics, which is also huge for my mom. It's a big family there and there's a lot of family support, so I liked that because I'm going to spend four to five years there. Some of those are going to be in my wedding some day down the road."

Horne is already familiar with a couple of his future teammates. Freshman defensive tackle Mark Scarpinato is also from Milwaukee and freshman cornerback Trae Waynes is from nearby Kenosha, Wisc.

"There are a lot of great players there," Horne said. "It's great to get some Wisconsin kids in there, and show them how we play ball."

Horne is coming off a senior season in which he accumulated over 1,800 yards of total offense and scored 23 touchdowns. He is also a standout in the classroom, carrying a 3.8 GPA and scoring a 24 on the ACT.