No, Barry Alvarez, Mel Tucker, and Darrell Bevell didn’t ACTUALLY walk into a bar, but you know how jokes begin. The “three guys walk into a bar” construct is one of the more familiar and recognizable ways to start a joke.
What follows is not a joke, but it IS a fun story to tell, many years after it happened. It comes from this Detroit News story in which Barry Alvarez reflects on the Wisconsin playing career of Mel Tucker, who was part of his first recruiting class as head coach in Madison.
Let’s let Barry tell the story:
“We were practicing for a bowl game. It’s like a day, two days before the game, and we’re not in pads. So, we’re doing two-minute drills with no pads, and on a quarterback scramble, Mel lights him up.
“I wasn’t a very happy camper. Then I saw him years later and said, ‘Now that you’re on the other side of the ball, you’re watching and coaching, what do you think you’d do if somebody did that?'”
Detroit News writers Tony Paul and Justin Rogers then wrote:
“Alvarez said Tucker didn’t respond, other than to laugh.”
What about Darrell Bevell’s reaction, you might ask? What did the 1994 Rose Bowl champion quarterback and Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator (with the 2013 Seattle Seahawks) have to say?
Here’s Bevell:
“I was in a black jersey and we were doing a goal-line drill and we were both being competitive, (I) went for the touchdown and he hit me full speed,” Bevell said. “It was a rollout pass, I went running and there was nothing (open), so I went for the front pylon.
“He hit me right in the side of the head, I ended up facing the goal line the other way.”
Wisconsin fans don’t want Mel Tucker to beat the Badgers as Michigan State’s head coach, but they certainly want Tucker to make life more complicated for Ohio State, and also for Iowa and Minnesota in the years when the Spartans play divisional crossover games against the Hawkeyes and Golden Gophers.
Wisconsin fans can appreciate Mel Tucker’s competitive zeal. A story from Barry Alvarez reinforces that point.