Darqueze Dennard Enters the MSU Hall of Fame

Spartan All-American Darqueze Dennard is among the 2024 inductees of the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame.

Dennard joins Jessica (Beech) Bograkos (softball), Anson Carter (ice hockey), Beth (Rohl) Saylors (women's track & field), Laura (Kueny) Smith (women's golf) and Paul Terek (men's track & field), along with the 1965-1966 football teams, who become the first teams inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Celebration will take place on Friday, Sept. 13. There will also be a special recognition of the 2024 MSU Athletics Hall of Fame Class during the Michigan State-Prairie View A&M football game at Spartan Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 14.

The MSU Athletics Hall of Fame, located in the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center, opened on Oct. 1, 1999, and displays plaques of the 180 previous inductees. The charter class of 30 former Spartan student-athletes, coaches and administrators was inducted in 1992.

All Darqueze Dennard needed was an opportunity. His recruiting profile on various national websites did not even have a headshot of him, let alone a national, state or position ranking.

Dennard found that opportunity at Michigan State and took full advantage of the scholarship offer he received from College Football Hall of Fame Coach Mark Dantonio, ascending to heights few Spartans have ever reached.

"I'm super excited and incredibly grateful," said Dennard. "It's going to be a long list of people to thank (at the induction ceremony). To have my name alongside the greats (in the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame) is something that you obviously think of when you're walking along the building as an 18-year-old, and now being able to be one of those people is definitely special."

Growing up in the small community of Dry Branch, Georgia, and attending Twiggs County High School, Dennard did not have any scholarship offers his senior year of high school until Michigan State recruited him at the end of the season. He made the leap from a small high school to the Big Ten Conference – and never looked back.

"It means the world," said Dennard of the opportunity that he had at Michigan State. "MSU gave me a chance when no one else was giving me a chance. I was a no-star recruit with no scholarship offers. (Former MSU offensive coordinator) Coach (Dave) Warner ended up seeing me (on a recruiting trip to Georgia to see future Spartan wide receiver Keith Mumphery), and had a conversation with Coach D.

"Coach D, that's my guy – I owe pretty much my career to him. It was just the process; I wasn't even supposed to be in that spot at Michigan State. So me being blessed with the opportunity to go to MSU with Keith (Mumphery), it was absolutely a dream come true. Definitely thankful of the opportunity."

Dennard blossomed into a three-year starter and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors at cornerback his final two seasons. As a senior in 2013, Dennard was co-captain of the nation's No. 1 defense as the Big Ten and Rose Bowl Champion Spartans won a school-record 13 games. He became the first Spartan to win the Jim Thorpe Award, given annually to the nation's best defensive back, and was a unanimous first-team All-American.

For his career, Dennard collected 167 tackles and 30 passes defended (20 pass break-ups, 10 interceptions) in 44 career games, including 40 starts (29 consecutive to close out career). He ranks tied for 12th in MSU history with 10 interceptions. During his four years on the Spartans from 2010-13, he was a member of two Big Ten Championship teams (2010, 2013), helped MSU to three bowl wins (2012 Outback, 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings, 2014 Rose) and two division titles (2011, 2013), and his senior class collected a 42-12 overall record. In 2020, Dennard was named to the Big Ten Network's All-Decade Team for the 2010s.

Senior cornerback Darqueze Dennard has been named the Tatum-Woodson Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year.

Senior cornerback Darqueze Dennard has been named the Tatum-Woodson Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year.

Dennard didn't redshirt as a true freshman in 2010 on Michigan State's Big Ten Championship team – he was thrown right into the mix, playing in six games before getting sidelined with a knee injury, but he did start twice at cornerback in league play to get a taste of Big Ten competition.

He emerged as a full-time starter as a sophomore in 2011, culminating with one of MSU's greatest bowl performances in the victory over No. 18 Georgia in the Outback Bowl. He picked off an Aaron Murray pass midway through the third quarter, leading to MSU's first TD of the game, then returned an interception 38 yards for a score at the 1:47 mark in the third quarter that cut the Bulldog lead to 16-14 in the eventual 33-30 triple-overtime Spartan win. Dennard was named to the Yahoo! Sports All-Bowl Team for his performance against his home state Bulldogs in which he tied a school record with two interceptions in a bowl game.

As a junior in 2012, Dennard earned first-team All-Big Ten honors and tied for the team lead with three interceptions and 10 passes defended. He was the recipient of the team's Jim Adams Award for being an unsung hero on defense.

But it was in 2013 that everything came together for Dennard and the Spartans in a record-breaking season.

Individually, Dennard became Michigan State's first cornerback to earn unanimous All-America honors and also the first to win the Jim Thorpe Award. Dennard also was selected recipient of the Jack Tatum Award, presented to college football's best defensive back by The Touchdown Club of Columbus. In addition, he was named one of five finalists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy (presented to the nation's top defensive player by the Football Writers Association of America).

Dennard was chosen as the 2013 Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for the second year in a row. A unanimous first-team All-Big Ten pick by the coaches, he was named Big Ten Defensive MVP by ESPN.com and CollegeFootballNews.com. At the team's banquet in April, Dennard won the Governor's Award as MSU's most valuable player, and in June he was honored as the George Alderton Male Athlete of the Year at Michigan State.

Dennard finished the season ranked fourth on the team with a career-high 62 tackles, including 3.5 for loss (8 yards). He led the team and ranked sixth in the Big Ten with 14 passes defended, and also tied for the team lead with four interceptions and 10 pass break-ups.

More importantly to Dennard, the co-captain led Michigan State to one of its finest seasons in its storied history. MSU won a school-record 13 games, defeated No. 5 Stanford in the 100th Rose Bowl Game, beat No. 2 Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game for the school's eighth Big Ten title, and finished No. 3 in both national polls, the highest ranking for the Spartans since 1966. Michigan State (13-1) became just the third team in Big Ten history to win at least 13 games in a season (Minnesota, 1904; and Ohio State, 2002).

"It was amazing playing with my best friends and my brothers," said Dennard about playing on the nation's No. 1 defense in 2013 and being a part of the "No Fly Zone" in the secondary. "We still keep in touch and reminisce about that time.

"Coming into my senior year, I was super locked in, just trying to get everybody on the same page. Going into that season, we had spent four and five years together, and we just wanted to go out with a bang, play together, and we had all of our goals in front of us, and we just kept attacking it one week at a time. It was a great time. There was a lot of stuff we did as a team, the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten Championship; I feel like that team will go down as one of the best teams ever at Michigan State."

Dennard was one of the main reasons Michigan State finished No. 1 in the FBS in pass efficiency defense (92.3 rating), No. 2 in total defense (252.2 ypg.), No. 3 in pass defense (165.6 ypg.) and No. 3 in scoring defense (13.2 ppg.).

Dennard shined in MSU's biggest games of the season, including the 100th Rose Bowl Game, as he helped the Spartan defense limit No. 5 Stanford to its third-lowest offensive output of the season in the 24-20 victory over the Cardinal. Stanford also threw for just 143 yards, its second-lowest total of the season. He also produced a 2-yard tackle for loss and three stops overall, and was named to ESPN.com's Big Ten All-Bowl Team.

He recorded three tackles, two pass break-ups and forced a fumble in Michigan State's 34-24 win over No. 2 Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Spartans limited the Buckeyes to 25 total yards in the fourth quarter, including zero passing yards, as MSU rallied from a 24-20 deficit to claim a BCS berth in the Rose Bowl.
On Senior Day against Minnesota in his last appearance at Spartan Stadium, Dennard tied his career high with nine tackles and also broke up a pass.

He recorded a career-best nine tackles and an interception in MSU's 30-6 victory at Northwestern, as the Spartans claimed the Big Ten Legends Division title for the second time in three seasons. It marked Dennard's personal-best fourth interception of the season and 10th of his career.

Dennard also had a pick against Michigan and was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after tying his career high with two interceptions at Iowa.

All of Dennard's success added up to a first-round selection in the 2014 NFL Draft (No. 24 overall) by the Cincinnati Bengals, as he became the first Spartan taken in the first round since 2002 and the first Spartan defensive back drafted in the first round since 1961.

Following his All-America collegiate career and graduation from MSU with a degree in communication, Dennard went on to play eight seasons in the NFL (Bengals, 2014-19; Falcons, 2020; Giants and 49ers, 2021). He also established the Dennard Difference Foundation to help various community projects, including the Dennard Difference Youth Enrichment Center in Macon, Georgia, and remains a presence in the Spartan program.

"Michigan State changed my life and I'm forever grateful for it, because it opened up opportunities for me to dream, for me to hope, and for me to accomplish things that I was told I could never do," said Dennard. "So that's why Michigan State is near and dear to my heart. I'll always be grateful.

"And really, the legacy, that's the cool thing about it, where I can come back and have conversations with people I knew since I was 18, and as my kids get older, they can see the sacrifices and the hard work that I put in were not only on the football field, but also in the classroom and the community, with my teammates, my coaches, and the support staff as well. I think that's the biggest legacy for me, just to be able to pay it forward and continue to give hope to people who come from circumstances like me, where they didn't have opportunities to dream."

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