The Michigan State Spartans added their eighth commit of the 2025 class on Friday when three-star wide receiver Charles Taplin announced his decision. Taplin, a Red Oak, Texas native, is the 155th-ranked player in the state and the 141st wide receiver in the 2025 class.

Taplin made his decision soon after he returned home from his visit, he told me. Taplin needed to consult his family and mentors. That was when he decided Michigan State was “the place to be.”

“Knowing that, again like trusting Coach [Courtney] Hawkins to develop me as a man, as a receiver, on and off the field,” Taplin said. “And also how [the Spartans] are family-oriented, you know. I’m gonna be a long way from home, so I gotta be taken care of.”

Hawkins’ track record of NFL receivers, including Jayden Reed and Keon Coleman, played a big part in Taplin’s trust of Hawkins. Hawkins congratulated Taplin upon his commitment announcement, and Taplin said he has already been given instructions from the coach on how to prepare for the college level.

“Him and Coach [Cordale] Grundy sent me some releases to work on,” Taplin said. “Just hitting the field after my summer workouts, to make sure I get some releases in. I go to a sandpit, I can do some releases in the sandpit. … [The releases] are nothing too difficult, but it’s what the pros do.”

Taplin said that next on his agenda is working out and being the best he can be, and he is looking forward to having a great senior season. Taplin told me the team’s goal is to win the Texas 5A state championship, something it failed to do last year when it lost to Aledo.

Taplin is part of an elite wide receiver trio that could be the best in the state of Texas. He is joined by four-star Taz Williams, rated the 51st receiver in the 2025 class, and four-star Brayden Robinson, the 28th receiver in the 2026 receiver class, per 247Sports.

Taplin told me he plans on enrolling to the Spartans early. He said he was most excited for “practicing against the best, playing against the best, [and] learning from the best.”

Taplin is the second receiver the Spartans have secured from the 2025 class. The first was three-star Ohio receiver Braylon Collier.

Michael France is Sports Illustrated’s Michigan State recruiting beat writer, covering all things Big Ten recruiting for Spartan Nation. Be sure to follow him on Twitter/X@michaelfrancesi for exclusive Spartans recruiting coverage.

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DETROIT – Donald Trump will use back-to-back stops Saturday to court Black voters and a conservative group that has been accused of attracting white supremacists as the Republican presidential candidate works to stitch together a coalition of historically divergent interests in battleground Michigan.

Trump is scheduled to host an afternoon roundtable at an African American church in downtown Detroit. Later he will appear at the “People’s Convention” of Turning Point Action, a group that the Anti-Defamation League says has been linked to a variety of extremists.

Roughly 24 hours before Trump planned to address the conference, well-known white supremacist Nick Fuentes entered Turning Point’s convention hall surrounded by a group of cheering supporters. He was quickly escorted out by security.

Fuentes created political problems for Trump after Fuentes attended a private lunch with the former president and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West at Trump’s Florida estate in 2022.

Trump’s weekend plans underscore the evolving political forces shaping the presidential election this fall as he tries to deny Democratic President Joe Biden a second term.

Few states are expected to matter more in November than Michigan, which Biden carried by less than 3 percentage points four years ago. And few voting groups matter more to Democrats than African Americans, who made up the backbone of Biden’s political base in 2020. But now, less than five months before Election Day, Black voters are expressing modest signs of disappointment with the 81-year-old Democrat.

Michael Whatley, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, told Michigan Republicans at a dinner Friday that the state could not be more important.

“Everybody knows if we don’t win Michigan, we’re not going to have a Republican in the White House,” Whatley said. “Let me be more blunt: If we don’t win Michigan, we’re not going to have Donald Trump in the White House.”

“We are going to determine the fate of the world in this election in November,” he added.

Trump argues he can pull in more Black voters due to his economic and border security message, and that his felony indictments make him more relatable.

Democrats are offering a competing perspective.

“Donald Trump is so dangerous for Michigan and dangerous for America and dangerous for Black people,” Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, who is African American, said Friday. He said it was “offensive” for Trump to come.

Among Black adults, Biden’s approval has dropped from 94% when he started his term in January 2021 to just 55%, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll published in March.

About 8 in 10 Black voters have an unfavorable opinion of Trump, with roughly two-thirds saying they have a “very unfavorable” view of him, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in June. About 2 in 10 Black voters have a very or somewhat favorable view of Trump.

Trump won 8% of the Black vote in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. And in what is expected to be a close election, even a modest shift could be consequential.

Maurice Morrison, a 67-year-old lifelong Detroit resident, plans to attend Trump’s church appearance. Morrison acknowledged that Trump, for whom he voted twice before and plans to again, is deeply unpopular in his community and even inside his home.

“Once he decided to run for president as a Republican, that automatically made him racist. That’s his middle name now — ‘Trump is racist’ — everybody I talk to, all the people I know, my family,” said Morrison, who is Black. “The man cares.”

Meanwhile, thousands of conservative activists, most of them young and white, were eagerly awaiting Trump’s keynote address Saturday night.

Turning Point has emerged as a force in GOP politics in the Trump era, particularly among his “Make America Great Again” movement, despite the ADL’s warning that the group “continues to attract racists.”

“Numerous individuals associated with the group have made bigoted statements about the Black community, the LGBTQ community and other groups,” the ADL, an international anti-hate group, wrote in a background memo. “While TPUSA (Turning Point USA) leaders say they reject white supremacist ideology, known white nationalists have attended their events.”

A Turning Point spokesperson did not respond to questions about the ADL’s characterization.

Turning Point, long popular among Trump’s MAGA fringe, is now a central player in mainstream Republican politics. The group’s weekend speaking program featured a long list of established Republican politicians, including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, in addition U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and former Trump counselor Steve Bannon, who is set to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence for defying a U.S. House subpoena.

In his remarks Friday night, Vivek Ramaswamy, who has emerged as a fierce Trump ally since unsuccessfully challenging Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, called on conservatives to reject what he said was the Democrats’ embrace of diversity.

“I am sick and tired of celebrating our diversity,” Ramaswamy charged. “It means nothing unless there is something greater that unites us.”

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

A second-round rally wasn’t enough for Katie Lu to stick around for the weekend.

The Michigan State junior fired a 3-under-par 69 on Friday but missed the cut in the Meijer LPGA Classic at Blythefield Country Club in Belmont. Her 36-hole total of 1-over 145 fell short of the cut line of 2-under to play the final two rounds.

Ally Ewing and Grace Kim are tied for the lead at 11-under with seven other players within three shots.

This week marked Lu’s second LPGA event after missing the cut in the Cognizant Founders Cup last year in her home state of New Jersey.

Lu had a standout junior year for the Spartans by leading the team with a scoring average of 71.54, which is the second-lowest total for a season in program history. She was named first team All-Big Ten and tied for 45th at the NCAA Championships last month as Michigan State tied for 17th as a team.

That performance landed Lu a sponsor exemption to the Meijer Classic and she was the lone amateur in the field. She opened the tournament with a double bogey on the first hole and shot a 4-over 76 on Thursday.

Beginning her second round on the back nine, Lu had three birdies, an eagle and a bogey to make the turn with a 4-under 32. She was within striking distance of the cut line but closed with a 1-over 37 on the front nine to fall short.

First-place finish

While Lu was making her second LPGA appearance, her teammate Shannon Kennedy was securing a trophy.

The Michigan State junior won the Michigan Women’s Amateur on Friday. Kennedy won 2-up in the match play final against Elise Fennell at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield.

“There were definitely a lot of emotions coming off 18,” Kennedy said in a Michigan State press release. “I had nerves pretty much all day but was able to keep control and execute the way that I needed to. When she conceded that putt to me, I kind of let loose, hugging my dad and looking over to see all my family and friends here. It was pretty surreal for me.”

With the victory, Kennedy automatically qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur, which will be Aug. 5-11 at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.

Kennedy, from Bloomfield Hills, tied for 10th after two rounds of stroke play with a 12-over-par 152 total (78-74) on Monday and Tuesday. She followed by winning five matches over the last three days.

During her junior season, Kennedy posted a scoring average of 75.7 over 13 events. She tied for 128th in the NCAA Championships as the Spartans tied for 17th as a team.

Major opportunity

Michigan State men’s golfer Ashton McCulloch missed the cut at the U.S. Open on Friday. The junior from Canada shot 75-75 for a two-round total of 10-over 150 at Pinehurst No. 2 as the cut came at 5-over.

McCulloch posted an eagle and five bogeys during Thursday’s first round after teeing off in the morning. He played in the afternoon Friday and had two birdies, three bogeys and a double.

Ludvig Aberg leads the field at 5-under while Thomas Detry, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay are tied for second a shot behind.

McCulloch, a second team All-Big Ten selection this season, posted a 70.89 average per round, which set a program record. He earned a spot as an amateur in the RBC Canadian Open and missed the cut two weeks ago after posting a 36-hole total of 5-over.