NFL
By: Brock Vierra
If you are one of the many who believes in the phrase Tuck coming, don’t hold your breath. The newest beneficiary of coaching contracts in college football has failed to live up to the 95 million dollar hype he was awarded in 2021 and with an abysmal roster heading into 2023, Tucker’s fourth season may once again end in failure.
A daunting task ahead of Mel Tucker just to reach bowl eligibility, Vegas has Michigan State winning 5.5 games, predicting Tucker’s third losing season in four years, once again questioning both his contract and his coaching ability while I question his ability to win without Kenneth Walker III.
But I think that there’s the main issue. Kenneth Walker III was an incredible player for the Spartans that Tucker scouted and recruited from Wake Forrest. Walker was a slam dunk but one of the few Tucker has had. While the rest of the Big 10 use the transfer portal to improve their rosters, Tucker has failed to properly supplement his team, especially at the quarterback position.
No disrespect to Rocky Lombardi and Payton Thorne but there’s a clear reason why no one was afraid of the Spartans passing game. While Iowa acquired Cade McNamara, Wisconson got Tanner Mordecai, Illinois acquired Tommy DeVito and Luke Altmyer in back-to-back years, Purdue got Hudson Card and Nebraska got Jeff Sims, Michigan State has failed to properly address their QB problem.
Tucker continually ignores the position from both a personnel and a play-style standpoint. The best teams in the conference have mobile QBs. Tucker doesn’t. Every team in the Big 10 has addressed their QB issues. He hasn’t. Nine teams in the Big 10 went to a bowl game in 2023. Michigan State wasn’t one of them. While Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr, and Caleb Williams top a long list of QBs who entered the portal into finding instant success, none of those names made it to East Lancing. That is a problem.
But it doesn’t stop there. Tucker has failed to not only bring in equal to greater value between his arrivals and departures in the transfer portal, but he also hasn’t come close to addressing the talents lost to the NFL. When it comes to the arms race called college football, Tucker is failing to not only keep up with the Jones’ but keeping up with that mega contract he signed.
The bigger issue is that what he failed to do, others in his own division have done. Maryland and their head coach Mike Locksley went from being the joke of the conference to sending 5 players to the NFL via the draft including first-round pick Deonte Banks. Locksley also used the transfer portal to properly address his QB need, acquiring Alabama’s Taulia Tagovailoa who has gone 16-13 with two bowl victories. Maryland had four straight losing seasons before Locksley’s arrival.
At the end of the day, you pay someone 95 million dollars to win games, conferences, and national titles. Tucker looks miles away from getting Michigan State there. With USC and UCLA joining the conference, MSU is in even worse shape than they look like they’re in.
With constant movement within the program and questions about player discipline, Tucker finds himself in a world of hurt. Now time isn’t his enemy yet but it is no longer his friend. Spartan boosters aren’t gonna support him unless they see some type of progress.
Mel Tucker as of writing is joining an unenviable enviable list of coaches under big contracts that are failing to deliver results. He, Jimbo Fisher, and Lincoln Riley have failed to deliver on what their bank accounts promised. Now they’re still in the first half of their deals but time is running out. Riley is a different case but USC wants to see championships.
Tucker needs to hit the portal harder, the boosters need to contribute more to NIL deals, MSU needs a mobile QB and they need to do all of this right now. Tucker needs to hurry because MSU is a high-level program and they won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on the crop of promising coaches currently taking this game to the next level.
