Mel Tucker fills Michigan State coaching staff opening with former NFL assistant
On Monday, Michigan State head football coach Mel Tucker said he was looking to fill the open spot on his coaching staff with someone who specialized in the secondary, and that he wanted to find that person "fairly quickly".
Three days later, Tucker had his man.
On Thursday night, Michigan State announced that former NFL assistant Jim Saldago had been hired as the program's new cornerbacks coach. Saldago had spent the previous six seasons with the Buffalo Bills.
“Jim Salgado is an excellent, experienced football coach,” said Tucker in a press release. “I’m really impressed with his football knowledge. He comes highly recommended from one of my mentors, Leslie Frazier, and together they coached some of the top defenses in the NFL at Buffalo (No. 2 in team defense in 2018, No. 3 in 2019, No. 1 in 2021, No. 6 in 2022). Jim also has coordinator experience at the collegiate level, and really made a difference at Princeton, helping that program to two league titles. He has really good connections and can recruit nationally. He also has a great relationship with Harlon Barnett, so I’m excited to see them work together in the secondary.”
Saldago fills the hole in MSU's coaching staff left by departed pass rush specialist Brandon Jordan, who was hired to fill the same role for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks earlier this month. Saldago has nearly three decades of coaching experience at the college and NFL levels.
The NCAA allows 10 on-field assistant coaches per program, and Michigan State will now be at full strength for the remainder of its spring practice season, which began on Tuesday and will continue through April 15.
Tucker is entering his fourth season at Michigan State, with Barnett having served as the program's secondary coach through his tenure. Tucker has utilized a cornerbacks coach in two out of the other three seasons as well with Mike Tressel in 2020 and Travarus Tillman in 2021. Tucker, a former defensive back at Wisconsin who specialized in the secondary during his early coaching years, personally coached the Spartans corners last season after adding Jordan to his staff. However, Michigan State's struggles in the secondary continued and Tucker will turn to Saldago to try to fix those woes.
Saldago played cornerback at Hofstra from 1990-93 before beginning his coaching career at his alma mater the following year as a defensive assistant. He has also coached at Western Connecticut, Boston, Millersville, Northeastern, Syracuse, Cornell and Princeton before being moving to the NFL. He was a defensive assistant with the Bills from 2017-19, coached nickelbacks the following two years and then safeties last season before being fired.
Michigan State is coming off a disappointing 5-7 campaign last season after going 11-2 in year prior. Tucker said in December that he didn't anticipate any changes to his coaching staff this offseason, but he has had to make two new hires. Defensive line coach Marco Coleman left the program for the same position at his alma mater, Georgia Tech. Tucker hired former Stanford defensive line coach Diron Reynolds to fill that opening on the Spartans' staff.
