PHOTO: Wake Forest defensive end Langston Hardy, who earned honorable mention All-ACC in 2025 after transferring from Connecticut, offered a 2026 scouting report on two former UConn teammates now playing for Michigan State.

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Thomas Shanahan | @Thomas-Shanahan-23

Order link:

Raye of Light: Jimmy Raye, The Integration of College Football 3rd Ed – August Publications

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By TOM SHANAHAN

CHARLOTTE – The Big Ten Football Media Days in Chicago are another week and a half away, but I have a Michigan State head start on two Spartans by way of the ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte.

Yes, that’s the state of college football in 2026:

I interviewed a Wake Forest player whose Connecticut teammates in 2024 were two Michigan State 2026 players by way of transfer, running back Cam Edwards and offensive tackle Ben Murawaski.

“They’re great players – both of them,” said Wake Forest senior defensive end Langston Hardy, an honorable mention All-ACC pick for the Demon Deacons in 2025. “I was pretty close to Cam and Ben, too.”

Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald brought in Edwards and Murawski to bolster an anemic running game he inherited as the Spartans’ new coach.  

PHOTO: Michigan State offensive tackle Ben Murawaski in spring football.

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Edwards, a 5-foot-11, 206-pound redshirt senior, ran for 1,240 yards and 15 touchdowns on 210 carries a year ago. Some of those holes were opened by Murawski, a 6-7, 340-pound redshirt senior.

HERO sports named Edwards a third-team Group of Five choice and Murawski second team. Yards gains provide fans with a benchmark to judge running backs, but in the digital age, we need to turn to Pro Football Focus for o-linemen. PFF graded Murawskis the No. 28 offensive tackle last year among Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

As a defensive player, Hardy practiced against Edwards and Murawski in 2024, 2023 and 2022 practices.

“Ben is a huge kid,” said Hardy, a 6-4, 250-pounder and son of Kevin Hardy, the former Illinois Butkus Award winner and NFL All-Pro linebacker. “He was originally playing more guard when I was there and then he moved out to tackle. He can be a great player. He’ll definitely help them.”

Hardy started 12 games last year at left tackle after starting six games in 2024 at left guard. He played a backup and special teams role in 2023 and redshirted in 2022 without seeing action.

“Cam is a very versatile running back,” Hardy said. “He’s going to be a big help for them too.”

Edwards finished the 2025 season with three straight 100-yard rushing games, including 108 with a touchdown in the Wasabi Bowl loss to Army West Point. PFF graded him gaining 776 yards after contact. He also caught 19 balls for 187 yards to average 109.8 total yards per game (95.4 rushing, 14.4 receiving).

PHOTO: Michigan State running back Cam Edwards in spring football.

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College football transfers are normalized by now, if not sooner, judging by the ACC Kickoff roster of invited players. Hardy wasn’t the only transfer that a schools brought as one of its three representatives. Two of the quarterbacks were transfers within the conference.

Miami’s Darian Mensah transferred from Duke by way of Tulane in 2024, and Wake Forest’s Gio Lopez from North Carolina by way of South Alabama in 2024. Lopez mentioned he’s more comfortable at Wake Forest, where he was reunited with his offensive coordinator at South Alabama in the 2024 season, Rob Ezell. He said transferring for people is better than chasing the money.

Hardy nodded in a agreement while he brought up the good and the ugly of the transfer age. He didn’t enter the portal after the 2025 season, but he still heard from schools trying to convince him to visit and transfer for 2026.

Isn’t that tampering?

“It’s the nature of college football – you hear from schools even though you’re not even thinking of transferring,” Hardy said. “I truly love this place and the coaching staff. It’s (college transfers) a monetary situation. But if you have values based on people, I think you’ll have a better experience.”

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— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.

— My chance to tell the true stories of college football integration on The Spiro Avenue Show – Tom Shanahan Report

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I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.

Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama that earned first place for Enterprise from the Football Writers Association of American.

— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.

— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”

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PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books

— RAYE OF LIGHT, 

Raye of Light: Jimmy Raye, The Integration of College Football 3rd Ed – August Publications

or on Amazon.

— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.

PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books

— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here. 

— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP. Order here:

How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map by Tom Shanahan, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Amazon.com: How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map eBook : Shanahan, Tom: Kindle Store