ANN ARBOR – Jaden Mangham knew he was making a decision that would likely not be well-received, but he felt he had to make a move.
Mangham, who played at Birmingham Groves, spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons at Michigan State, where he made 12 starts at safety, including 10 in 2023. He was honorable mention All-Big Ten that season.
Then, when there was a coaching change at Michigan State, he decided to transfer, and after a couple visits to different programs, landed at in-state rival Michigan. Mangham wasn’t the first player to transfer from one rival to another, but it still stung. He will make his first trip to face Michigan State at Spartan Stadium on Saturday night now as a Wolverine when the teams meet for a primetime kickoff.
“I knew it was going to be crazy, but you can’t really think about stuff like that,” Mangham told reporters in September after he made his first start for the Wolverines at Oklahoma. “At the end of the day, it is a business. I knew (criticism) was going to come with it. I knew what people were going to say, but it really didn’t matter at the end of the day. I don’t interact with (the outside noise). I don’t listen to any of it right now. I’m just focused on helping my team win.”
Michigan’s Jaden Mangham plays during an NCAA football game on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AL GOLDIS — AP Photo, file)
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Mangham has started three games and has 12 tackles and two pass breakups this season. He did not play last year for the Wolverines while he recovered from injuries.
“I was hoping to find the field last year, but there was just so many setbacks,” said Mangham, who said during the transfer process he visited Nebraska and one other program he chose not to name. “And then talking with my parents, talking with the coaches, I just felt it was best for me to just take that year so I could build my body back and come back ready.”
He worked on getting healthy to be ready for this season and finally being able to contribute. He offers a veteran presence in the secondary.
“Mangham is a good kid,” defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan said earlier this season. “He works really hard. A good thing about him is he’s a mature player, and he started games at Michigan State.”
Ultimately, Mangham said he made the decision to transfer to Michigan because he believed he would have a better path to the NFL.
“I felt like Coach Morgan and Coach (Sherrone) Moore will definitely be able to help me build my game and get better at my craft. There was a new staff coming in to MSU, and me and my family just felt it was best for me to just take a take a step back and go look for different schools.”
With his time away from the game last season while he got his body healthy, Mangham focused on tackling. He studied film and angles and worked on his vision.
“I definitely feel like people forgot (about me),” he said. “But at the same time, I’m just putting my head down and working. I know I’m still that player. I just have to work to get back to it. And the coaches trust me enough, so I just got to keep putting in work.”
He has been utilized differently at Michigan than he was at Michigan State.
“It’s definitely a lot different,” Mangham said. “I feel like at MSU I was more of a free safety, so I was in the post a lot more, coming down in the alley. Here, I play to the boundary and to the field. It’s just like a left-right kind of system, so I’d definitely say that’s probably the biggest difference. ”
Mangham said he understands why he may have ruffled some feathers when he chose to transfer to Michigan. He also knows there may have been some Michigan State teammates upset with his decision, but only a few players, he said, really reached out to him.
This is always a heated rivalry game with state bragging rights on the line, but Mangham has more unique, obvious reasons why he’s been looking forward to the Michigan-Michigan State game.
“That’s definitely going to be a crazy game, going back there, too,” Mangham said of playing against his former team at Spartan Stadium. “I’m definitely excited for that. I can’t wait.”