Mel Tucker the Traditionalist
A man reveals a bit of himself with each choice he makes, and the more choices Mel Tucker makes, the more clear it becomes what a traditionalist he is.
Colorado will be wearing its traditional black-and-gold uniforms for this week's rivalry game against Nebraska. There was a report on Twitter that CU would be wearing an all-black getup, which is what most college football teams would do in this situation in 2019.
Uniforms have become a big part of the game. Oregon popularized the idea of having multiple uniforms, and now everybody else feels like they have to do that, or else the kids won't want to come there. I've always been skeptical of this notion, as it sounds like something that would have been conjured up in a board room at a shoe corporation, but in any case it is very much the norm in college sports now.
So I'm not calling Mel Tucker a rebel, exactly, but in a weird way ... traditionalism is a little rebellious these days. And all signs point to that being the kind of show Tucker runs in CU.
He talked all offseason about being physical and running the ball, and then only threw 20 passes in a Week 1 win over CSU. He even had his quarterback under center (gasp). Now, facing a hated old rival, he's putting the Buffaloes in their old-school threads.
Tucker is an old-school guy with a conservative disposition, which means that's probably how CU is going to be for as long as he's in Boulder.