Mel Tucker has come home to the Big Ten Conference and to Michigan State. Yet, while it is worth noting that Tucker’s coaching career began in East Lansing under a guy named Nick Saban in 1997, it is also important to point out that before Tucker’s Big Ten story began as a coach with Michigan State, it began as a player at Wisconsin.
Barry Alvarez recruited Tucker as part of his first class in 1990. Tucker would have been on the active roster for the Badgers in their 1993 Rose Bowl-winning season — the season which transformed the program and is the most cherished season in UW football history for many Badger fans around the world — but he suffered a broken leg and wasn’t able to play in that 1993 campaign.
Nevertheless, Tucker was part of the foundation Alvarez built in Madison. Alvarez recalled the player he once knew and the coach Tucker has become in a wide-ranging interview with the Detroit News. Alvarez spoke in response to the news that Tucker would indeed be Michigan State’s new head coach:
“He was always a very serious guy, always a student of the game. He was a guy that was really into it, you know… Everyone I talk to, whether it’s Jim Tressel or Saban, they talk about how good a recruiter he is. He really gets along with players, a great rapport with players.”
On the primacy of recruiting for Tucker and other new head coaches, Alvarez said, “It really helps. It absolutely has gotta be a priority for them.”
Alvarez added this story about the 1991 Wisconsin-Minnesota game, won by the Badgers. Tucker made the game-deciding play:
“It was the last play of the game and they threw a pass to the tight end in the end zone; they were inside the 10. And Mel made a tremendous collision separating the tight end from the football.
“That was our first Big Ten road victory at Minnesota.
“He’s a great addition to our conference.”
Wisconsin fans hope that last statement is more true for Michigan State’s games against the Big Ten East and UW’s rivals than it is against the Badgers themselves. After all, Mel Tucker IS a Badger… even though he is now a Spartan as well.