Exclusive: In Rebuilding Can Mel Tucker Really Judge a Record
East Lansing, MI—When new Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker was tasked with rebuilding Spartan football, all involved knew it wouldn't be easy. When I looked back and watched every game from his Colorado team last season, I asked him a simple question. The Buffs' previous season was better at the end than the start of the season, so can you judge a rebuilding year solely by the wins and losses?
"Well, for me, it's controlling what you can control and maximizing your full potential, being the best that you can be day in and day out. Coaching is teaching. As a coach, you have to teach, develop, and motivate players through recruiting, having a process, offensive, defense, and special teams, and developing your team."
He went on to add, "I believe you can get your program where it needs to be over time. We work here, relentlessly every day with a sense of urgency to be the best. Knowing that at the end of the day, we will be judged on where the loss is, and so my goal is always to win every game that is on our schedule. That is why we prepare, why we work, why we recruit. That is our goal, to be the best, and we will work at it every day, and then we will just add it up at the end."
The Spartans kick off the season on September 5, 2020. They will be hosting in the Northwestern Wildcats with a rare, season-opening Big Ten game.
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