Michigan State’s offensive line overhaul has put a spotlight on center again, and this time the Spartans are betting on a proven one.
Trent Fraley checks in at No. 12 on the ongoing “top 30 players” countdown, and he arrives in East Lansing with the kind of résumé that makes a portal pickup look smart on paper. The redshirt senior from Moon Township, Pa., is in his final season of eligibility after starting out at Marshall, then moving on to North Dakota State.
The first thing that jumps out is his frame. At 6-foot-1, Fraley is the shortest offensive lineman on the roster, though his 306-pound weight fits right in for an interior blocker.
And at center, height matters a little less than it does elsewhere. Michigan State has already seen that formula work with Tanner Miller at 6-foot-2 and 290 pounds two seasons ago, and with Matt Gulbin at 6-foot-4 last season before he became the Spartans’ best offensive lineman and was drafted by the Washington Commanders in the sixth round of this year’s NFL Draft.
That’s the standard Fraley is walking into. Michigan State has cycled through portal centers three years in a row now, and Pat Fitzgerald answered the need by bringing in the FCS standout. There are big shoes to fill, but there’s also a real case that Fraley can handle Big Ten football.
His early college career didn’t give him much runway. At Marshall, he played in just one game as a true freshman and then three more as a redshirt freshman. After the 2023 season, he transferred again, looking for more opportunity.
North Dakota State turned out to be the perfect landing spot. The Bison had already built a ridiculous standard, winning 10 national championships since 2011, and Fraley became a major part of that machine.
In his first season there, he started all 16 games and logged 984 offensive snaps. NDSU also beat now-teammate Conner Moore and Montana State in the national title game that year.
Fraley’s second season in Fargo was even better. He started all 13 games last fall, and while the Bison were upset by eventual national runner-up Illinois State in the second round of the FCS playoffs, Fraley piled up the hardware. He won the FCS Rimington Award as the subdivision’s top center, earned First Team All-Missouri Valley honors and picked up plenty of First Team All-American recognition.
That production made him one of Michigan State’s more notable portal additions this offseason. On3 ranked him 583rd overall in the portal, while 247Sports had him at 724th. Both sites also placed him among the 50 best interior offensive linemen available, which says plenty about how he was viewed coming out of Fargo.
The pass protection numbers stand out most. Fraley posted PFF grades of 82.2 in 2024 and 85.5 in 2025, both strong marks.
Across 794 pass-blocking snaps over those two seasons, PFF charged him with just one sack allowed and 23 pressures. He went through the entire 2024 championship season without giving up a sack.
That kind of reliability matters for a Michigan State offense that allowed 37 sacks last season. Alessio Milivojevic took 16 of those sacks despite starting only four games, and Aidan Chiles’ mobility helped cover for the line at times. Milivojevic won’t have that same escape hatch.
That’s part of why the Spartans’ projected line makeup looks so different this year. Four new starters is the likely shape of it, with three transfers in the mix and one more returner coming back from injury. The left side and the middle are expected to be entirely portal additions: UConn transfer Ben Murawski at left tackle, South Carolina transfer Nick Sharpe at left guard, and Fraley at center.
On the right side, Conner Moore is the projected returning starter at right tackle. Luka Vincic is back as well, though he played only two games last season after an injury in Week 3. He looks like the most logical option at right guard.
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