Has Mel Tucker's $95 million contract created unrealistic expectations for Michigan State?
When Michigan State lured Mel Tucker away from Colorado ahead of the 2020 season, expectations were varied depending on who you asked.
Tucker had extensive experience working under some of the best coaches in football — guys like Nick Saban, Kirby Smart and others — and brought with him the reputation of an excellent recruiter. But, Tucker had just one year of head coaching experience under his belt, going 5-7 in his lone season in Boulder.
Michigan State went 2-5 during the COVID-shortened season in 2020, and followed that up with a breakout 11-2 campaign in 2021. During the latter season, following a win over in-state rival Michigan in a Top 10 matchup, Tucker was awarded a 10-year, $95 million contract extension.
Expectations were no longer varied. Expectations went through the roof.
Last offseason, ahead of the 2022 season, several people inside Michigan State's program — players and coaches — began publicly expressing expectations of competing for a national championship. Calling that kind of talk "premature" is putting it kindly.
The 2023 season was a disaster on the field for the Spartans. Michigan State suffered multiple injuries to key players early in the season, suffered six losses by double digits, went through the embarrassment of the Michigan Stadium tunnel incident and didn't even qualify for a bowl game with a 5-7 record.
Yet, despite the "boom or bust" nature of Tucker's first three seasons at Michigan State, one thing has been consistent for his program — Recruiting.
In both of Tucker's recruiting cycles at MSU, the Spartans have finished with the No. 23 class in the country, according to 247Sports' team composite rankings. During the modern recruiting era (since 1999), that's only happened twice before (2015-16 and 2009-10).
Tucker's 2022 class, his first at Michigan State, featured six four-star players — more than the previous three classes combined. The Spartans' 2023 class yielded eight four-star players, which is the second-most in school history (9 in 2016).
“I think a lot of people are underwhelmed with this signing class for Michigan State, and this comes with the territory of making $9.5 million a year if you're Mel Tucker. What used to be good enough is no longer good enough," 247Sports college football talk show host Josh Pate said last week.
“How does this stack up to how they have been recruiting? These are the last seven signing classes at Michigan State – [national ranking] 36, 30, 31, 44, 46 — here comes Mel Tucker — 23, 23.”
Has Tucker's contract extension created unrealistic expectations among Michigan State supporters?
“I’ve always maintained on this show that it doesn’t matter if you pay him $19.5 million a year," Pate said. "The program is capable of what it’s capable of, you’re capable of what you’re capable of, and you don’t get to justify warped expectations just because you threw a lot of money at someone. That doesn’t make sense in college football or in life.
“If you’re 5-10 and you can’t dunk, and then I say, ‘Here’s $10 million, go dunk for me’ and you still can’t dunk, how dumb would it be for me to be pissed off at you? I’m the one who paid a 5-10 kid to dunk. I just blew $10 million dollars on him. I’m not telling you, by the way, that Michigan State is blowing money on Mel Tucker. I am saying people who are upset they didn’t finished Top 10 may be a little bit more of a problem then Mel Tucker is the problem.”
Remember, the Spartans went 7-6 in each of former head coach Mark Dantonio's final two seasons in East Lansing. Tucker inherited two recruiting classes ranked in the 40's nationally. There's no doubt that Michigan State exceeded expectations in 2021 and, vice versa, failed to reach expectations in 2022.
Based on the discrepancy in results from Tucker two full seasons at Michigan State, its difficult to evaluate the job he's done here. Only when we get a look at the Spartans after two, three or four full recruiting cycles from Tucker can an educated opinion be formed.
For Josh Pate's full comments regarding the latest recruiting cycle for Michigan State football, skip ahead to the 11:14 mark in the video below:
