Michigan State football set to be ranked for first time under Mel Tucker

Mel Tucker has coached a whopping 10 games for Michigan State football.

Through those 10 games, Tucker is 5-5 with three of those victories coming against AP Top 25 teams. Two of those three ranked victories have come on the road. Tucker has won four games since taking over at Michigan State as the underdog.

That statistic above is staggering. Sure, Tucker has had eight opportunities as an underdog thus far, but he’s still won four of them and a certain coach in Ann Arbor who has been there for seven years has never won a single one — 0-for-12.

Michigan State seems to be in good hands.

But that all-time record stuff is beside the point. Michigan State went down to Miami, smacked the Hurricanes around in the fourth quarter, and returned home with a 3-0 record and a third straight double-digit win. Oh yeah, and they’re about to be holding onto a spot in the AP Top 25 for the first time since the beginning of the 2019 season.

Michigan State is about to see its first appearance in the AP Top 25 under Tucker and if you asked anyone in the fanbase, they would have told you that there was no way that would happen in 2021.

It seems as if Tucker is way ahead of schedule.

I see the Spartans coming in somewhere around the No. 21 or No. 22 spot in the AP Top 25 on Sunday afternoon — the poll is usually released around 2 p.m. ET.

Michigan State football roster changes have paid dividends

During the broadcast on Saturday afternoon, a graphic appeared that a lot of people didn’t quite realize until it was made public: Michigan State has 41 new players on the roster this season.

Yes, that’s half the roster.

Michigan State had plenty of attrition this past offseason to graduation, the NFL, and the transfer portal, but the Spartans also hit the portal hard and landed almost two dozen recruits in the 2021 class. This fresh look to the roster with Tucker bringing in his guys has been a major reason for all the success, along with the players buying in right away.

This team believes in Tucker and it’s showing.