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Family brought Max Bullough to Michigan State. But it just as easily could have landed him at Notre Dame.
"Well, first of all, he should have come to UCLA," joked uncle Chuck Bullough, who did recruit his nephew as defensive coordinator for the Bruins. "I knew that was a losing battle from the start. Max grew up with Michigan State and Notre Dame his whole life."
The celebrated middle linebacker from Traverse City will begin his MSU career when the Spartans open the season Sept. 4 at Spartan Stadium against Western Michigan.
He'll join grandfather Hank, father Shane, uncle Chuck and uncle Bobby Morse in the MSU football family. He could have joined grandfather Jim Morse Sr. and uncle Jim Morse Jr. in the football family at Notre Dame, where mother Lee Ann also attended college.
Jim Sr. played at Notre Dame in the 1950s, co-captaining with Paul Hornung. Jim Jr. was a part of the 1977 national championship team.
The link is Bobby, who roomed with Shane at MSU and turned in one of the legendary plays in MSU football history, a punt return for a touchdown in a 1984 win at Michigan.
MSU coach Mark Dantonio and former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis both had heredity on their side as they battled to land Max, who gave a verbal commitment to MSU during his junior season at Traverse City St. Francis High.
Although Max's family believes it was a tough decision, he said during spring football that it was easier than it may have seemed.
"You know, honestly, in my mind, there really wasn't (a question). I have always been coming here," said Max, who graduated early from high school so he could enroll and participate in spring drills. "I love Michigan State. This is where I am supposed to be."
That's the same conclusion Shane and Chuck eventually reached during their recruitment, but not immediately. Shane was a heavily pursued linebacker from Cincinnati Moeller High (Hank was defensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals at the time) who had offers from Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame and Georgia.
"Hank never pushed them to go to Michigan State," said Hank's wife, Lou Ann, "or even to play football."
The fact that MSU's new coach was "Uncle" George Perles, though, helped seal the deal. Shane was Perles' first recruit in 1983 - and just to make certain, Perles offered eighth-grader Chuck a scholarship at the time as well.
"Turns out he became a great player too," Perles said.
Chuck was a high school star in Orchard Park, N.Y., with his dad serving as head coach of the Buffalo Bills at the time. He strongly considered Syracuse before heading to MSU in 1987.
"Part of me thought I didn't want to follow them, I wanted to do my own thing," Chuck said. "But looking back, yeah, I was going there."
Shane and Chuck both spent two years starting at middle linebacker, the key position in Perles' "stunt" 4-3 defense. Shane helped build Perles' program in four years, while Chuck contributed to MSU's last two Big Ten titles in his five years.
"They were exactly the same player," Perles said of Shane and Chuck, who combined for 702 tackles at MSU and earned first team All-Big Ten honors as seniors.
Now it's Max's turn. As with his sons, Hank did not try to sway Max to go to MSU, giving him just this advice on his choice: "If you got hurt the first day, God forbid, would you be happy at that school for the rest of your life?"
Max is about the same size (6-foot-3, 228) as Chuck was as an MSU senior, and he wants to play right away. It appears likely he'll get that chance.
Hank wouldn't mind seeing Max redshirt, but Shane said he is deferring to his son, who "always pushes the envelope and always has goals."
"The thing with Max is, more than the Bullough legacy, he's trying to get Michigan State football back to where it should be," Shane said. "I want my son to have the best experience he can possibly have, obviously, but the thrill is in the hunt of becoming a championship team again. I know coach Dantonio and he has those goals, and we have those goals."
