Tag: Mel Tucker

Report: Mel Tucker has ‘agreed in principle’ to become new MSU Football head coach

According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Colorado head coach Mel Tucker has agreed to become the new head coach at Michigan State.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have some breaking news from Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. According to Feldman, Colorado head coach Mel Tucker has ‘agreed in principle’ to become the new MSU Football head coach, replacing Mark Dantonio at Michigan State.

According to reports last weekend, Tucker had removed his name from consideration for the role, but according to Bruce Feldman, the MSU decision-makers made Tucker repeated offers until it became ‘impossible to ignore.’

Here is the initial report from Bruce Feldman of The Athletic:

Tucker, who played in college for Wisconsin, started his coaching career with Michigan State back in 1997 as a graduate assistant. He has since gone on to coach for numerous teams, including Ohio State, LSU, the Cleveland Browns, the Chicago Bears, Alabama, Georgia, and most recently he was the head coach of Colorado, where he went 5-7 in his first year as a head coach.

He had his first stint as a head coach as the interim coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars where he went 2-3 in 2011.

Details are still emerging about the deal, and it obviously hasn’t been officially been confirmed by the University as of 1:23am ET. More to come tomorrow no doubt.

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Colorado HC Mel Tucker removes name from consideration for MSU Football job

Colorado’s head coach Mel Tucker reaffirmed his commitment to Colorado this afternoon on Twitter.

Yesterday, there was a report from Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press stating that anonymous sources inside the MSU Football program said that Colorado head coach Mel Tucker would be interviewing for the Michigan State head coaching job, left vacant by the now-retired Mark Dantonio, along with Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell. Today, Mel Tucker released a statement saying that he is committed to Colorado, removing his name from consideration for the opening.

Here is Tucker’s statement, which he posted on his Twitter account:

As of right now, Mel Tucker, Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi, and San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh have all removed their names from consideration for the position. That leaves Luke Fickell as the only coach who is heavily rumored for the role who has not directly denied interest in the position.

It is hard to tell how long this coaching search will continue. You would think they would want to wrap it up fairly quickly. I would not be surprised at all if Fickell accepts the job next week. If it’s not him, there are some names they could go after but this could drag out longer than they’d like.

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MSU Football interviewing two head coaching candidates this weekend

Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell and Colorado head coach Mel Tucker will be in East Lansing this weekend to interview for the vacancy.

Michigan State Football lost their head coach since November 2006 this week, seemingly out of nowhere and are now trying to find a suitable replacement for what should be a highly sought after coaching position. This weekend MSU will be interviewing two candidates for the job in Luke Fickell and Mel Tucker.

The news was broken today by David Jesse and Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press.

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Fickell has been the head coach at Cincinnati for the past three seasons and served one season as the interim head coach for Ohio State before they hired Urban Meyer. He was the co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State from 2005-10 and then from 2012-16. Fickel is 26-13 as head coach of the Bearcats.

Mel Tucker has an interesting resumè that includes stops with Ohio State, Georgia, the Chicago Bears, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is currently the head coach of Colorado where he had an unimpressive 5-7 season. He served under Dantonio at Ohio State as his defensive backs coach, which explains why MSU gave him a call.

Worth noting, San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has turned down an offer to interview for the position.

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