Michigan State Football: 3 biggest concerns heading into 2020 season

2. Did the new staff have enough time to implement new system?

Mel Tucker was hired on Feb. 12, shortly after National Signing Day and the infamous “committed to Colorado” statement. He was given an offer he simply couldn’t refuse so the bad timing of the departure from one program and arrival at another was just a minor setback.

Little did he know that a pandemic was about to hit and his entire staff would have to communicate with the team remotely via Zoom for months.

Spring ball was cancelled, the 2020 Big Ten season was postponed until spring and the staff barely got to see these guys line up across one another. Tucker and his staff had to implement entirely new playbooks on both sides of the ball, but how can you do that when a season is postponed and the only workouts being executed are in the weight room?

A major concern for this team would be just how much of an impact has the new system played thus far? It’s always tough for young collegiate athletes to adjust to new coaching staffs, let alone one that has only been in place for seven months and hasn’t been able to meet with them face-to-face for a majority of that time.

Playbooks can be learned remotely, but execution is a different beast.

Will there be enough time in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 24 start to truly learn new systems and be able to execute them at a high enough level to be competitive? It’s hard to say.