East Lansing — Coming out of Belleville, Julian Barnett was rated the third-best player in the state of Michigan and the No. 8 cornerback in the nation by 247Sports.com.
It was a huge recruiting win when Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio landed the four-star prospect as Barnett was the second-highest rated player in the 2019 class.
But while the plan was for Barnett to join a pipeline of top-level cornerbacks to go through Michigan State, it appears he’ll take at least a minor detour. When the Spartans opened preseason camp on Thursday, Barnett was working with the wide receivers.