Once upon a recent time, Madilyn Weigand and Malik Gill were students at Michigan State, working as interns for the Football program Their jobs involved working on game days, shuttling
recruits and their families to the stadium, checking them in, getting their credentials and tickets, guiding them to their seats, etc.
They’re smaller tasks, but still important to be handled correctly. Weigand and Gill both graduated, and now found themselves upgraded: full-time directors for the program. Weigand, a communications grad, and Gill, who graduated with a degree in liberal studies, are some of the unseen people who make the football team run behind the scenes.
During their time as interns, their previous bosses left, leaving the director roles vacant. Weigand felt as if she had proved herself capable of taking over the role and when she found out the
position had opened, she applied and got the job in July 2024. Gill signed his contract the following year as the director of recruiting communications.
“I graduated on May 3rd, and I was officially hired on May 6th (2025), but Alan Haller the athletic director [at the time] got fired in between May 3-6, so my contract was actually approved by Tom Izzo,” Gill said.
In their role, they consider themselves step-two. While they are not the ones out there actively scouting recruits, they are making sure the recruits that come and visit are having a good
experience. Most recruits that come and visit have not actually committed to MSU. Instead, they invite players to sign themselves up and come out for a visit.
“We’ll invite people that the coaches want… and we'll also send out a form where anyone can come,” Weigand said. “We are very much in the mindset of the more people that want to come,
the better.”
While no day is the same, a typical game week starts on Monday, and they will open a form for recruits to sign themselves up and then will send them the information the players and their families will need when coming on gameday. On Tuesday, the ticket sheets are created and on Wednesdays the ticket sheets are taken to the ticket office and credentials are made.
“We are very lucky to have students who work in-office, just because they are able to do some of those tasks that I might not be able to do,” Weigand said.
Food is catered for every game and final counts are due on Wednesday. On Thursdays, they continue to check everything and send out any last-minute information to the recruits coming. Fridays are the busiest day with vendors coming all day to set up, such as balloons and light vendors. Saturday is usually game day, with the exception of a rare Friday game. If the game is on a Friday, they will just move the usual schedule up a day.
The two split the duties between them. Weigand handles more of the event planning and the behind the scenes of what the visits look like. Gill handles more of the communication side of inviting the players to come and visit and creating the graphics and updates.
“We work well together,” Weigand said. “We’ve worked together for the past four and a half years so we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Both agree that they are lucky to have been offered a full-time job right out of college and being so young in this role comes with added pressure since a lot of the staff around them have been
working much longer than them.
“It’s very hard for me not compare myself to other people… and it’s pressure I’ve put on myself because I am young and I’m the only girl in our recruiting department,” Weigand said. While the season may have just ended, there really are no off days. Now they have moved onto signing day for recruits who commit to the university.
Then comes looking at who has hit the portal and then taking a look at those in the class of 2027. Finally, spring ball will roll around and then it will be the regular season again.
Like any job, there are pros and cons. Not every person who visits will commit to MSU and it is even more upsetting when someone comes on multiple visits and still decides to commit elsewhere.
“When a kid doesn’t commit here it is hard because we put a lot of time and resources into making this feel like home… but then again sometimes it’s like maybe they weren’t the right fit,”
Weigand said.
The two of them said the best part of the job is seeing recruits come visit as a high schooler and make that decision to commit here and watch them flourish and live out their dreams playing at
MSU. It is even more special to them when the player enters the NFL draft and gets to continue following their dreams.
With these past few seasons being some of the worst seasons in MSU football history statistically, it makes it harder to recruit players here. It makes it even harder when the two of
them can see how hard the players on the team have worked each week.
“I saw the guys go out there every week and they never gave up and I saw the work they put in… so I have a hard time with people who are complaining they are not playing well,” Weigand said.
Now that NIL and the transfer portal have become such a big part of college sports in general, but specifically college football, it will become harder to recruit players just on official visits to the university.
So much more will eventually go into getting players to commit to colleges and athletic departments will have to adapt and change their approaches to make their university feel like home.
“I would love to see just more people involved, I think as college football continues to grow and change, you’re going to need bigger recruiting departments,” Weigand said.