Michigan State Football: Who else could join Mel Tucker’s coaching staff?

Mel Tucker is looking to finalize his Michigan State football staff in the coming week, or so, and here’s who he should consider.

Mel Tucker has been Michigan State’s head coach for almost a whole week now and since he’s been on campus, the Spartan football program has been generating plenty of excitement.

Besides rescuing fans, and the program, from deep depression after the Luke Fickell fiasco, Tucker has been firing up players with team meetings, recruiting and hiring an impressive coaching staff — at least thus far.

So far Tucker has retained Ron Burton (likely as defensive line coach again) and Mike Tressel (to an unknown role) and there are rumors that Harlon Barnett could be back as well. To top it off, Tucker brought in his offensive line coach from Colorado on Monday afternoon as his staff is starting to take shape.

So far, the coaching staff looks something like this (question marks around coaches who haven’t been designated a certain position yet:

Offensive coordinator: N/A
Defensive coordinator: Mike Tressel/Harlon Barnett?
QB coach: N/A
RB coach: N/A
WR coach: N/A
TE coach: N/A
OL coach: Chris Kapilovic
DL coach: Ron Burton
LB coach: Mike Tressel?
DB coach: N/A (rumors of Harlon Barnett)
Special teams: N/A

So who could he be targeting to fill it out?

As an offensive coordinator, there are rumors that Tucker could be looking to bring Jay Johnson with him from Colorado. Other options could be Brian Hartline or even Brad Salem. Obviously Hartline would be a home run and potential dream scenario and Salem could be an even better option without Dantonio handcuffing the play-calling.

Plus, Hartline could double as receivers coach and Salem could be either quarterbacks or running backs coach. Another interesting option who has been thrown around is Matt Canada, but Michigan State fans have wanted him for years.

Kapilovic could also double as running backs coach as he was the run game coordinator at previous stops or maybe a former player like Sedrick Irvin could come in and coach the backs.

Defensively, it wouldn’t shock me if Barnett came back as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. Tressel could be the co-defensive coordinator with him and be in charge of the linebacker as well. If Barnett is strictly defensive coordinator, Renaldo Hill or Archie Collins would be intriguing options to coach the defensive backs — both were names to keep an eye on when Barnett left and Dantonio ultimately hired Paul Haynes.

Steve Clinkscale from Kentucky would be one heck of a hire at defensive backs coach as well as he’s one of the best recruiters in the Midwest.

As for special teams coordinator, that’s pretty much up in the air as he could look for a former player, assign that title to a coach he hires primarily for a different position or maybe bring someone like Ross Els from Colorado to East Lansing.

Tucker has plenty of options and deep pockets to fill out a coaching staff and it’s coming together quite nicely. He may just finalize his staff this week.