The surprising news last week of Mark D’Antonio stepping down as Michigan State’s head coach led the Spartans on a wild goose chase to find their replacement.
A week later seemingly everyone Michigan State had approached responded with a “thanks, but no thanks”.
Former Spartans defensive coordinator under D’Antonio turned Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi wasn’t interested.
San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh declined.
Luke Fickell was the show pony but cited “family reasons” for staying at Cincinnati instead of return to the Big Ten East.
I get why it’s so tough to fill – just look at your immediate competition in the area: Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State are all right there competing for the same talent while those three have a clear step ahead. Then factor in the timing of the opening being about as bad as possible and the hesitation to take the job is even more understandable.
Finally overnight Tuesday into Wednesday it appears they’ve found their replacement, one that has had some success as a coordinator but has had an extremely limited sample as head coach.
BREAKING: #CU coach Mel Tucker has agreed in principle to become the new head coach at #MichiganState, per sources. After Tucker turned down initial interest, MSU power brokers came back repeatedly to Tucker’s reps w/ an offer that was impossible to ignore https://t.co/qjOH0qKirQ
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 12, 2020
Mel Tucker has been a head coach at any level for all of 17 games. Five of those came as interim head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011 before spending last year at Colorado where he went 5-7.
Maybe they’re famous last words but some people are head coaches while others are excellent coordinators. Not that anything is wrong with that, but I’m hard pressed to get too excited for Tucker leading the charge if I’m a Michigan State supporter.
Tucker’s greatest accomplishments as a coordinator come from 2002 when he helped guide Ohio State to an unlikely national title and 2015 when he helped Alabama win it all in the middle of their dynasty as an assistant head coach/defensive backs coach.
I’m not knocking what he did at Alabama but am I to supposed to think it was the defensive backs coach that was so responsible for that year of success?
Tucker had a stop at Georgia where he ran the defense and coached the defensive backs from 2016-18.
Perhaps it’s because I saw his defenses up close in covering the disasters that were the 2013 and 2014 Chicago Bears, but I’m not sold on Tucker in charge.
Perhaps he steps in and ups recruiting at Michigan State, something they’ve regressed on a bit of late. But will he be able to improve and modernize an offense that largely looked out of 1991 the last five seasons?
I suppose Michigan State doesn’t have to panic and promote an assistant to save face and Tucker’s hiring does at least help that. But it’s hard to see this being a knock out hire for a mostly career coordinator who hasn’t coached in the Big Ten since 2004.
For a guy with such little head coaching experience, entering a division already home to Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan feels like he’s entering a Blackjack table that has a stacked deck against him.
Michigan State and Notre Dame are scheduled to briefly renew their rivalry with a home-and-home in 2026/2027. Time will tell if Tucker can essentially upset the house and be around for those.