“When you go out and you recruit, first of all, I don’t think it’s a science, you look for things and people that are going to improve your football team,” Dantonio said. “When you look at that and the process and the evaluation process, a lot of that has to do with who we are as a program and how we’re going forward.”

Wednesday was the first day high school seniors officially could sign a National Letter of Intent to universities.

The Spartans’ class, which is ranked No. 39 nationally behind Big Ten opponents Ohio State (No. 4), Michigan (No. 7), Nebraska (No. 24) and Purdue (No. 34) according to college football recruiting website Rivals.com, features a cavalcade of players at skill positions to replace a talented departing group. In an effort to replace staples such as quarterback Kirk Cousins and wide receivers B.J. Cunningham, Keshawn Martin and Keith Nichol of the 2011 squad, Dantonio scavenged talent from seven different states, including continuing his dominant presence in Michigan and Ohio.

In addition to Burbridge and Cox, the Spartans landed three four-star players and 13 three-star players, not including wide receiver transfer DeAnthony Arnett.

Of the team’s new additions, Arnett and three-star wide receiver Kyle Kerrick are the only ones to have enrolled early at MSU.

“I want to be a big, strong, fast receiver,” said Kerrick, who is 6-foot-3, 195 pounds and looking to add close to 15 more pounds before the fall. “I’ve got a lot of things to work on in my game, the route running, the getting off the press. I want to be a big, fast and strong receiver and get better.”

Dantonio redshirted all but two of the 21 freshmen from his 2011 recruiting class. With a class of 17 seniors departing from MSU following the 2011 season, Dantonio and his staff have evaluated his young team and will look for “immediate contributors” before the start of spring practice.

“It’s important to recognize that our players have a lot to do with this recruiting class. I would publicly like to thank our players and what they had to do with recruiting this class,” Dantonio said. “The numbers are not big, but when you look at the numbers of our seniors this year, those numbers were not big either. For that point, we have a lot of players coming back, and the future is extremely bright at Michigan State.”