🏈 Mel Tucker - Mich. State: UPDATE: "We Were Hoodwinked': Inside the Final Hours of Mel Tucker as Colorado's Head Coach"

[planomateo]

Will be interesting to see how the 2020 recruiting classes deals with this.

 

[planomateo]

This tweet is from Saturday. Let's define his usage of the word committed.

 

[rammerjammer]

Commitment can be bought.


Not knocking the guy, most likely any one of us in the same boat, would do the same thing. MSU brokers, kept coming back until they had a number that could not be ignored.

 

[TerryP]

A side note of sorts here...

Alfano, who quit going to classes at Bama (not to mention practice,) makes a point a few weeks ago about his time in Colorado versus his time at Alabama.

“It was just us (talking) and drawing up plays and going back and forth,” Alfano said. “We just got along really well and I really enjoyed that. I felt like I learned more from coach (Brumbaugh) in that meeting than I learned the whole year at Alabama.”

Tucker, as you can see here, quits Colorado and moves to Michigan State. Alfano credited him from day one as being the reason he chose Tuckers' program.

Jimmy Brumbaugh, who Alfano credited as being a reason he learned more at CU over a few weeks than Bama over a semester, has moved along as well. He's in Knoxville as their defensive line coach.

A while back Saban said that any kids that transfer from Alabama in not a good stand typically does not do well at other colleges.

It's been interesting to follow the attention placed on transfers this past season. We've seen so much praise heaped upon Burrows and Fields under the guise of "look how well the transfer options have worked since their inception."

And then we have dozens of stories like Alfano's.

Here, we can't say it's a case of him not doing well at Colorado. It is a case of a transfer falling into what he thought, or was told, was a better playing situation but in the end he's left with even more uncertainty than he had when he came up with "grandmothers health."

 

[TerryP]

Not knocking the guy, most likely any one of us in the same boat, would do the same thing.

He would have had to be pretty scared of any potential NCAA issues to turn down a job at MSU versus Colorado.

You couldn't be more right here. I'd bet 99% of any college football fan group would make the move if given the opportunity.

 

[planomateo]

College coaches should refrain from using the word committed. But hell, he was committed until Brinks showed up and soon he was committed to another.

 

[UAgrad93]

College coaches should refrain from using the word committed. But hell, he was committed until Brinks showed up and soon he was committed to another.

He was committed...... committed to the $$$$$$$$$$$!!!!

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Yo7 know...here is another thing..rarely considered.....college environment and quality of life....giving up a lot to leave Colorado to go to Michigan...
I guess that doesn’t matter to these types....

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

Yo7 know...here is another thing..rarely considered.....college environment and quality of life....giving up a lot to leave Colorado to go to Michigan...
I guess that doesn’t matter to these types....

You have to give Mel credit for stepping into very difficult job knowing full well that success will be a real challenge. JMO but 8-4/9-3 and a bowl game is doing a good job at MSU. Where is he going to get his players?

 

[50+yeartidefan]

You have to give Mel credit for stepping into very difficult job knowing full well that success will be a real challenge. JMO but 8-4/9-3 and a bowl game is doing a good job at MSU. Where is he going to get his players?

Ohio n Michigan are loaded with players..just tough competition getting them...
Tucker should do well..

 

[alabama mike]

It has to be difficult to win at Colorado unless you are Bill McCarthey or Mike MacIntyre (he only had a cup of coffee). I do know they have been involved in a major renovation of the athletic facilities but recruiting to Boulder has to be really tough. The K. Stewart era has been long gone since Colorado was a major player on the national scene.

I visited the MSU campus a few years ago in E. Lansing. They have decent facilities and have a good recruiting base to pull from ie; Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania as the nucleus. Every once in awhile they are able to get some top quality players from Florida or California.

With those things above being said, I think there is a lot pressure to win at Colorado than MSU. 6-8 wins a year at Colorado gets you a contract extension IMO but you do that at MSU very long and you will be out of a job. MSU expects to go to a bowl game every year, even if its a minor bowl with the occasional Rose Bowl thrown in but at Colorado, you hope to go to a bowl game.

Ole Mel has his work cut out for him but I am sure the money makes a few things easier to deal with.

 

[bama alum]

Dear Coach Tucker,

Please beat OSU!

 

[Tidestalker]

CU fans are butttt hurtttttt. I love it.

I'm trying to figure out why MSU jumped off the ledge for him. They came up with huge $$ for a one year head coach who went 5-7. No question he can recruit... He's been amazing at that. But it's all potential based.

And something tells me Fickle passed for good reason... not the $. D'Antoni left in a big rush. This may be a train wreck

SIDE NOTE - I thought McElwain may get a look there. He's already in Michigan and had a great year at Central Michigan. Made me think of something... That picture shark humping picture did a lot of damage to his career!

 

[planomateo]

5-7 at Colorado gets you $5.5m for 6 years. Goodness, the money unproven coaches get now is insane.

 

[LeGarrette]

Colorado took a chance on Mel as a head coach, he signs a recruiting class, was out selling the program to boosters that very weekend, claims he's committed, yet leaves for Michigan State. Doubtful that he even gave Colorado the chance to counter.

Shitty move in my book.

Pac-12 will struggle to keep coaches. Financially they just will not be able to keep up. Herm Edwards siting in the catbird seat in the Pac-12 South now.

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Did Nick Saban play a key role in helping his old school find its next coach?

According to a source, Saban advised MSU officials on what to look for in replacing Mark Dantonio.

www.detroitnews.com

Per protocol, Michigan State had a search firm officially helping find its next football coach.

It also had an unofficial search firm — a man named Nick Saban.

Saban, who was Michigan State's coach before he went on to a legendary career that features six national championships and counting, was an adviser during his old school's search to replace Mark Dantonio, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

After Dantonio stepped down a week ago after 13 seasons, Saban quickly called a longtime Michigan State acquaintance. That eventually led to the coordination of a lengthy phone conversation between Saban and athletic director Bill Beekman and deputy athletic director Alan Haller.

"'I'm very interested in Michigan State having the right person,'" Saban said in the phone call, according to the source. "And they weren't bashful about asking Nick."

Beekman confirmed Wednesday night he spoke to Saban.

Saban, 68, had two stints at Michigan State, from 1983-87 as defensive coordinator and defensive-backs coach, and 1995-99 as head coach.

After he left MSU, he went on to jobs at LSU, and the Miami Dolphins and, since 2007, Alabama.

He was a strong endorser of Mel Tucker, who will be introduced as MSU's 25th head coach Wednesday afternoon. Tucker worked with Saban on staffs at Michigan State, LSU and Alabama.

Saban long has praised Tucker's recruiting chops, and issued a statement on the hire Wednesday.

"Mel has made a name for himself as one of the best and brightest coaches in our profession," Saban said of Tucker, who was a head coach at Colorado for one season before taking the MSU job. Tucker also was an interim head coach in the NFL, for the Jacksonville Jaguars, amid a slew of coaching jobs since he played at Wisconsin in the mid-1990s. "I believe he will do a tremendous job as head coach of the Spartans. MSU is getting a guy with infinite class and a great personality, who is smart, works hard, and does it with an incredible amount of enthusiasm and positive energy.

"Mel is a tireless recruiter who knows the game of college football and understands what it will take to be successful in East Lansing."

In his conversations with MSU officials, Saban is said to have strongly stressed Tucker's recruiting efforts, as well as his ties to the South, which, of course, is a football recruiting hotbed. Tucker was the defensive coordinator at Georgia for three seasons. Saban also stressed to MSU that a mix of college and NFL coaching experiences is a plus, rather than an imbalance toward one over the other.

Tucker was one of three candidates interviewed by Michigan State, the others being 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell.

Tucker was offered the job Tuesday morning, hours after Beekman met informally with the Board of Trustees. Terms haven't yet been disclosed.

Officially, search-firm executive Glenn Sugiyama was hired to lead the quest for a new coach, but wasn't heavily involved in identifying candidates, according to the source. Schools regularly hire search firms to make contact with employers, ahead of interviews.

 

[NickelDoubleDog]

Colorado took a chance on Mel as a head coach, he signs a recruiting class, was out selling the program to boosters that very weekend, claims he's committed, yet leaves for Michigan State. Doubtful that he even gave Colorado the chance to counter.

Shitty move in my book.

Pac-12 will struggle to keep coaches. Financially they just will not be able to keep up. Herm Edwards siting in the catbird seat in the Pac-12 South now.

He gave CU a chance. Michigan St doubled his salary and more than doubled the pool of money to hire assistants.

This is a no-brainer. It may look bad but everyone will forget about it. The problem is the $$ disparity between the SEC and B1G and the rest of the world.

 

[planomateo]

How did he give them a chance?

He gave CU a chance. Michigan St doubled his salary and more than doubled the pool of money to hire assistants.

This is a no-brainer. It may look bad but everyone will forget about it. The problem is the $$ disparity between the SEC and B1G and the rest of the world.

 

[JoshB]

Not sure how I feel about Saban going to bat for Tucker like that... I mean I get it's your boy and all but... I don't know...