As summer rolls on and looking forward to the 2018 season gets old, how about a look back? This is the first in a series that retroactively re-ranks Michigan State's football recruiting classes under Mark Dantonio.

We're starting with the 21-member 2008 signing class, Dantonio's first full recruiting cycle on the job. The group was ranked No. 42 nationally, No. 9 in the Big Ten, and helped the Spartans go 44-22 over five seasons.

The 2008 class was gutted early on by departures in the aftermath of the infamous Rather Hall fight, but it also included a few big-timers and a handful of defensive players that played crucial roles in MSU's rise under Dantonio. A player's performance and impact at MSU is the only criteria in the revised rankings.

Here we go: