247Sports’ Josh Pate: Mel Tucker is the CFB coach with most to prove in 2023
A year ago at this time, optimism was abound surrounding Michigan State football. The Spartans were coming off an 11-2 season the year before, had locked up head coach Mel Tucker to a new, 10-year contract and had signed a Top 25 recruiting class heading into spring practice.
Fast forward a year later, and much of that optimism has evaporated.
MSU went 5-7 in 2022, finished fifth in the Big Ten East standings and failed to reach a bowl game. The Spartans’ offense struggled mightily without the constant threat of superstar tailback Kenneth Walker III in the backfield, and starting quarterback Payton Thorne regressed as a result.
Defensively, Michigan State’s secondary improved from a statistical standpoint, but that was likely due in large part to the fact that the Spartans’ rush defense took a sizeable step backwards.
As a result of the disappointing 2022 campaign, Michigan State’s recruiting efforts – which appeared to be soaring last summer – hit a bit of a roadblock. This resulted in a talented, but small, 2023 class.
Heading into the 2023 season, 247Sports’ college football talk show host Josh Pate listed Tucker among the college football coaches with the most to prove this year. He also named Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry and Florida’s Billy Napier.
“Mel Tucker’s got to lead this list,” Pate said on his show, Late Kick with Josh Pate, before diagnosing the problems for the Spartans.
“They had no run game,” Pate said. “They were…111th in rush yards per game. That’s how bad that rushing attack was, and this is one year removed from having Kenneth Walker, who [should have been] a Heisman finalist.”
Pate also called Michigan State’s secondary “very, very bad”. Tucker played defensive back at Wisconsin and made his way up through the coaching ranks as a defensive backs coach. He personally coached the Spartans’ cornerback position in 2022.
More concerning to Pate than the 5-7 record is the way Michigan State lost games.
“You know how sometimes in college football we have these teams and they have bad years but a lot of the losses are close,” Pate asked. “The whole, what was your record in one-possession games? You would think that if you had a team that was really good, and then they all of a sudden dropped down to 5-7, they just had bad ‘bounce of ball’ luck. That is not the case. Michigan State had seven losses and six of them were by double digits. So, the fact is, they weren’t close in a lot of games.”
While "bounce of ball luck" perhaps wasn’t a factor in the Spartans’ poor 2022 season, MSU’s roster was hit hard by both injury and suspension a year ago.
Michigan State lost starting linebacker Darius Snow for the season and starting safety Xavier Henderson for multiple games in Week 1. Starting defensive tackle and All-Big Ten selection defensive tackle Jacob Slade also missed multiple games. After bursting on to the scene early in the year, starting edge rusher/linebacker Jacoby Windmon missed the final four games of the year due to suspension. Wide receiver Jayden Reed missed a couple games and played through injury in most of the others as well.
And those are just some of the more prominent Spartan names that were sidelined for portions of the 2022 season.
Still, after Michigan State gave Tucker a new 10-year, $95 million contract extension in 2021, most of the fanbase and outside observers aren’t interested in hearing excuses or even legitimate arguments to why things went south in a hurry in East Lansing.
“There’s another reality…Mel Tucker [is] one of the Top 10 highest paid guys in college football,” Pate said. “Now, you should be proud that your athletic department had it in themselves collectively to deligate those kinds of resources to attracting a head coach. Do you have the right head coach?
“I don’t love to do the pancake approach and just flip-flop every year on head coaches but, man, it was a pretty radical drop off this past year. So, it’s not totally unfair to ask whether that 2021 season was a mirage [or] a product of just a really good haul in the portal, but it wasn’t sustainable. I don’t think that’s unfair.”
However, while it’s Pate’s opinion that Tucker is the No. 1 coach in college football with something to prove in 2023, that doesn’t mean the talk show host is ready to punt on Michigan State’s head coach.
“I’m certainly not in the camp that’s ready to sell on Mel Tucker. I’m not that at all,” Pate said. “I’m just saying this is a bottom-line business, and it’s like a double-bold bottom line when you’re making the kind of money he is.
“Mel Tucker 2021 – excellent year. Mel Tucker 2021 – Michigan State arrives. The problem is, they made them play 2022 and it was no bueno. Mel Tucker has a lot to prove, therefore, in 2023.”
The full segment of Late Kick with Josh Pate concerning the college football coaches with most to prove can be viewed in its entirety below:
Twitter: @mlounsberry_SI
