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Michigan State football emphatically redeems itself with hire of Mel Tucker

By Connor Muldowney

BOULDER, CO - OCTOBER 25: Head coach Mel Tucker of the Colorado Buffaloes leads players onto the field before a game against the USC Trojans at Folsom Field on October 25, 2019 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
BOULDER, CO - OCTOBER 25: Head coach Mel Tucker of the Colorado Buffaloes leads players onto the field before a game against the USC Trojans at Folsom Field on October 25, 2019 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /
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Michigan State football missed out on Luke Fickell earlier in the week but hit an absolute home run, retracing its steps with Mel Tucker.

Mel Tucker’s resume speaks for itself. After starting his career as a grad assistant at Michigan State, he went to LSU, Ohio State, the NFL, Alabama and Georgia as an assistant before landing the head coaching job at Colorado in 2019.

Learning under a multitude of elite coaches, such as Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, it’s apparent that Tucker was a top option for Michigan State.

The Spartans interviewed him once, but decided that Luke Fickell was the No. 1 guy and went ahead and put the full-court press on him. And then Fickell surprisingly said ‘thanks, but no thanks’ to Michigan State and it looked like the Spartans were all out of luck. It was too late in the process to even consider anyone worthwhile, but the athletic department gauged Tucker’s interest once more.

After saying he was staying put the first time around, Tucker was made an offer he couldn’t refuse and social media caught fire late on Tuesday night.

Honestly, this was the best possible scenario for Michigan State. For someone who was hard on the school for missing out on Fickell and dubbed the search a disaster, I truly believe Tucker is a guy who can turn the program back in the right direction and he is a home run hire.

The coaching tree of Saban is expanding and Mark Dantonio may have had something to do with this as well, seeing as the two worked together at Ohio State.

Next. 3 takeaways from MSU's much-needed win at Illinois. dark

Tucker went just 5-7 in his first season at Colorado, but the Buffs were a disaster when he got there and was rebuilding the program, and doing a solid job. He was bringing in the No. 35 recruiting class in 2020, but you can bet that he’ll do much better with even more resources at Michigan State.

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