MSU Football: After inheriting poor roster, Mel Tucker says 2023's is his best
Leading up to the 2023 season, Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker’s willingness to talk about what the Spartan program lacked when he arrived in February 2020 has been notable.
Over the past two weeks, first at Big Ten Media Days on July 26 and then at his press conference to open fall camp on Aug. 5, Tucker has described the situation that he walked into when he took the job.
“I know what the roster looked like when I walked in the door,” Tucker said. “After the 2020 season…we didn’t have a player drafted, and that was the first time in, I think, 80 years that Michigan State didn’t have a player drafted. That’s at any position, so that just goes to show you the state of depth and talent in the program.”
Tucker said there were people who advised him not to take this job.
“We came in the door playing catch up,” Tucker reiterated. “When this opportunity came up, I had several people tell me, ‘Do not take that job. You go into the conference eighth or ninth walking in the door. You have no facilities.’”
Tucker said former head coach Mark Dantonio himself noted that Michigan State had fallen behind with outdated football facilities, which impacts recruiting.
“One of the first things that Coach Dantonio told me once I got here in February 2020 was, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to get a new facility. We have to get that done here,’” Tucker said. “And I knew that. We were towards the bottom of the league and it’s really hard to recruit that way. Because not only do you want to get the players here, you want them to have a good experience while they’re here.”
After securing a commitment from the university to build a new football building, Tucker went to work on improving the Spartans’ roster. A relentless competitor on the trail, Tucker provided a boost to MSU’s high school recruiting efforts and supplemented roster holes via the transfer portal. Heading into his fourth season at the helm in East Lansing, Tucker is starting to see the depth and talent that he envisioned back in 2020.
“We have competition at every single position, and no doubt the most talent that we’ve had top to bottom on our roster,” Tucker said. “We needed more quality depth on our roster and we addressed that this out of season.”
The path to an annually competitive roster is not a linear one. Michigan State learned that last year when it stumbled to a 5-7 record on the heels of a breakout 11-2 campaign in 2021. After a relatively healthy season the year prior, the Spartans were one of the team’s most plagued by injuries in 2022. Those injuries, combined with losing stud tailback Kenneth Walker III, derailed the season and put a spotlight on how far MSU still has to go to compete with the best in the Big Ten.
“Quality depth is important,” Tucker said. “We didn’t have that at enough positions a year ago, so when we got guys banged up we just weren’t able to answer the bell at a winning level. We’ve addressed the depth through recruiting and player development.”
While Michigan State just opened fall practice days ago, Tucker noted that the size and depth that the Spartans have added is noticeable.
“Much improved,” Tucker said. “I was just talking to one of my good friends who’s an NFL personnel guy and that’s the first thing he mentioned to me. He’s come here every year, even before I got here, and he could tell that we’ve added some players, especially on the defensive line up front.”
Tucker and his staff have landed back-to-back recruiting classes that finished in the nation’s Top 25, something that hadn’t been done since the Spartans’ 2009 and 2010 classes. The head coach noted that Michigan State immediately pressed some of those 2022 recruits into action as true freshmen – guys such as defensive backs Jaden Mangham and Dillon Tatum, wide receiver Tyrell Henry and defensive end Zion Young.
“We’ve recruited well, especially the last two classes, and some of those young guys that we recruited in that ‘22 class were playing last year,” Tucker said. “So, it was painful, on the job training but they’re bigger, stronger, faster now. They have experience and they look different.”
Now, Michigan State is drawing closer to the completion of the new Tom Izzo Football Building, which is expected to help boost recruiting and talent acquisition even more.
“It means a lot for our team, it means a lot for players and it means a lot for our program,” Tucker said. “A locker room like that, that shows a commitment to excellence and pouring into our players and caring about them.”
But as fall camp continues, the attention is on the here and now as Spartans aim to put a winning product on the field this fall. Tucker said he knows what the roster needs to look like in order to win championships, noting his involvement in building title-winning squads at Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia.
How will Michigan State know when its reached a championship-quality roster and program?
“When you’re winning the games you’re supposed to win, and you’re competing and winning games with the best teams in the conference, and you can do that on a consistent basis,” Tucker said. “At that point, you can say that the program is consistently at this level.”
Are the Spartans there yet?
“We’ll see,” the head coach said. “Ask me in about a year.”
