Mel Tucker, Michigan State turn the page on 2021, strive for better in 2022
With spring football underway in East Lansing, Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker doesn’t want to hear about the success the Spartans had in 2021 anymore. The 11-2 record, the win over Michigan, the victory in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl – that’s all in the rearview mirror.
“Everybody’s got to get better, and nobody cares what we did last year,” Tucker said. “Last year wasn’t good enough anyway.”
Tucker and Michigan State aren’t satisfied with a third-place finish in the Big Ten East division. Just beating Michigan isn’t enough for this program anymore. That’s not why Tucker came to East Lansing, and that’s not why he signed a 10-year, $95 million contract extension last fall.
This spring, with the 2022 early enrollees and several new transfers on campus, Tucker and his staff are looking for the pieces that are going to take the Spartans to the next level this fall.
“We want to see who can play in the spring. That’s the big thing,” Tucker said. “We’re going to install our schemes…offense, defense and special teams, all the X’s and O’s. But at the end of the day, we need to make sure we know what our guys can do, how much they can do, how fast they can do it going into our summer program.”
Just like the team results of 2021 no longer matter, what individual players did in 2021 won’t help them earn playing time in 2022 either.
“No one has a job. Just because you started last season, that doesn’t mean you’re going to start this season,” Tucker said. “It’s open competition. There’s no sense of entitlement. You’ll get what you earn, and we have to prove ourselves every single day. So, that’s the mentality we’re taking.”
The head coach is pleased with how his players are responding to that challenge.
“I feel good about this team. I feel good about the culture of our program. The guys have bought in. The new guys fit in well, and we’ve got a lot of competition,” Tucker said.
Competition, as always, will be a key component in Mel Tucker’s practices this spring. Players are going to be coached hard, every day. Michigan State’s head coach said his players would have it no other way.
“The people that have decided to come here, they’ve come here because that’s what they want. Because when they come here on the visits, and they talk to the players, and they say, ‘What’s it like?’ This is what it really is like here,” Tucker said.
“It resonates with them, and they say, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want. That’s what I need to get better. That’s how I can reach my full potential as a player. I need to come here and do that.’ So, I don’t think there’s any issue with it resonating with them.”
Competition isn’t just for the new players on the field though. The Spartan veterans are getting the same treatment.
“You can’t assume that just because they kind of caught on last year that they’re going to catch on this year,” Tucker said.
“We have guys who are returning, and some of those guys are experienced and they know what the standard is. But there’s still some guys that are returning that don’t have as much experience, and they’re still learning, ‘What is the standard’. What does it take to get the job done.”
All of this is not to say that the results of Michigan State’s 2021 season don’t continue to have value. At this time last year, the Spartans were coming off a 2-5 truncated season. Although MSU had seven games under their belt with Tucker at the helm, 2021 was the first chance that the head coach could go through spring practice with his team.
“We had to really establish how do we work in the spring. It’s different than the fall. We laid that foundation with those guys, and it’s a lot different now because those guys that are returning, they’ve been through it before and they know what it’s all about,” Tucker said.
“That Spartan training program, that eight weeks, they know how important that is because it needs to prepare you for a spring. Because, when we start…we’re going. We’re not going to have the pads on, but we’re not going to be tip-toeing around out there. We’re going full speed. We’re going to be hitting the ground running.”
Tucker said his players were bought in to his formula even before Michigan State enjoyed a nine-game improvement from 2-5 in 2020 to 11-2 in 2021. Still, it never hurts to have empirical evidence that the system is working.
It’s motivated the players to work even harder, and hold each other to a higher standard.
“Football’s the ultimate team sport, and everybody’s got a job to do. You’re playing for the man next to you. It’s not about you, it’s about the team, and you’re buying into something that’s bigger than yourself,” Tucker said.
“If you’re a receiver, and you’re not willing to block on these run plays, you’re not willing to go dig out the safety, or stalk-block this corner and strain your gut to create room for the back, then no, you’re not going to get the ball because you’re not going to play. It don’t matter if we’re 2-5 or whatever – you’re not going to play. We’re going to find somebody to play, and we’re going to win. So, just buy into that. But that makes sense, because the receiver wants the offensive line to strain and block for him, and the quarterback to do his job and get the ball to him, so it makes sense. We’re not asking a guy to do something that another program’s not asking them to do.”
Michigan State’s foundation is in place. Tucker has the evidence he needs to entice future high-profile to recruits to take a serious look at East Lansing as a destination. Now, it’s about building upon that foundation and begin competing for and winning championships.
“We’re not starting over, but we’re not skipping any steps either,” Tucker said. “Everything has a progression, everything has a process.”
