EAST LANSING -- From "zero-star" walk-on in 2012 to NFL first-round pick in 2016 -- that will sum up the brief and dramatic journey for Michigan State's Jack Conklin if the April 28 draft goes as planned.
Conklin will be in it, MSU announced in a news release today. The 6-foot-6, 325-pound fourth-year junior left tackle from Plainwell will forgo his senior season and -- if the projections of analysts are correct -- give MSU a first-round offensive lineman for the first time since Tony Mandarich went No. 2 overall in 1989.
And it will give MSU offensive line coach Mark Staten a hefty rebuilding job, with Conklin joining senior center Jack Allen and senior guard Donavon Clark in departing.