“What we’ve done is taken the class of 22 players last year and stacked (this one) right on top of it,” Dantonio said. “This is another highly acclaimed and highly ranked class, and it shows great versatility with the players that we have.”

Wednesday was the first day high school seniors officially could sign a national letter of intent to universities.

The Spartans’ class, ranked No. 29 nationally according to the recruiting Web site Rivals.com, features four players considered to have at least four-star talent, as well as a steady distribution of players at each position. Headlined by Detroit Southwestern’s William Gholston — the only five-star recruit, according to Rivals.com, to sign with a Big Ten school — the Spartans’ class of 2010 includes five of the state’s top nine players and two four-star players from out of state.

Quarterback Joe Boisture of Goodrich, Mich., linebacker Max Bullough of Traverse City and running back Nick Hill of Chelsea, Mich., highlight the Spartans’ in-state recruits. All three, along with running back Le’Veon Bell (Reynoldsburg, Ohio), have enrolled early at MSU.

“I wanted to get ahead academically,” Hill said of enrolling early. “I wanted to get a jump start on the football program and play in the spring, and I felt that by me doing that gave me a good opportunity to showcase my skills early on instead of waiting until the fall. I thought academically, this would be an opportunity.”

MSU’s class is considered by Rivals.com to be among the top in the Big Ten in recruiting, behind Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State. After bringing in a class ranked by some in the top 15 a year ago, the Spartans have succeeded in keeping several of the top players in the state from heading elsewhere.

“A lot of the top kids in the Midwest are leaving the Midwest,” Rivals.com recruiting analyst Greg Ladky said. “This is another solid class that did well in the state.”

All 21 Spartans honored their verbal commitments and signed with the Spartans. As Gholston’s play this season helped improve his stock, some media outlets reported that the standout defensive end/linebacker was visiting other schools, but Dantonio said Gholston’s decision to be a Spartan also impacted other players’ decisions to play for MSU.

Dantonio said time will tell how good this class turns out on the field, but added that it has the ability to help continue mold the program into a perennial Big Ten threat.

“You won’t be able to evaluate us until after spring practice,” Dantonio said. “When you try to evaluate your recruiting class, you look at how many players start for you over a period of time, so we’ll continue to evaluate that, but we feel very good about our class defensively as well as offensively.”