Just days after promising to remain with Colorado, head coach Mel Tucker was pried away to fill the void Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio vacated in January. When it looked as if Tucker and Cincy head coach Luke Fickell were front-runners to take over at Michigan State, Tucker sent the following tweet:
Old Takes Exposed was quick to grab this one early this morning. Reading the comments, Colorado fans seemed extremely pleased Tucker was originally going to stick around. Financially, this move makes a ton of sense. Tucker will nearly double his contract earnings with Michigan State. However, Tucker comes off as somewhat of a liar. Not to say this doesn’t happen much in college sports, because it does, but why feel the need to tweet you’re staying? Obviously the Michigan State job is a lot sexier than Colorado. The move is a great one for Tucker’s career. But there should be some resentment in Boulder for quite some time.
In his one season with the Buffs, Tucker ended with a 5-7 record, including wins over rivals Colorado State and Nebraska, as well as big PAC 12 wins against Stanford and Washington. Tucker also has experience as an assistant, starting as a grad assistant at Michigan State in 1997 under Nick Saban. He then went on to be a defensive coordinator in the NFL for the Browns, Jaguars, and Bears before going back to the college ranks at Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia, winning two national titles. Colorado was Tucker’s lone head coaching job.
Tucker has major shoes to fill as he replaces the winningest head coach in Spartans history. Michigan State is coming off of back-to-back 7-6 seasons and went 0-4 against nationally-ranked teams last season. Michigan State is taking a major risk hiring a guy that has been a head coach for one season.