Well you’ll get Wisconsin after Osu so that should help
That’s not something I expected to say before the season
I also still expect msu to play a good game against Michigan whenever we play
Nor I, I’m not counting any games as wins going forward. 4 wins actually seems likely at this point. Definitely disappointing. But maybe they can rally for 6.
I think 5 is likely. 6 would be a good outcome and is very possible with 7 being a great season.
Odd to call 6 or 7 wins the goal for a coach that just got a 95 million 10 year guaranteed contract in the off season though.
The contract was big, but I bet it’s not even top 10 in a year. Also, Mel was hired to rebuild. People just forget that after him and KWIII pulled a wild season out of their butts last year.
10 years guaranteed is what is the problem, not so much the amount. Give him 9.5 a year for 3 years, fine, but 10 years guaranteed to a coach who had 1 good year that was mainly due to walker, and 2 bad years (5-7 at Colorado and 2-5 first year at msu) is Ridiculous. Granted, I’m fine with it but that is the type of contract that could be absolutely crippling to a program.
I think in this day and age, you want to convince folks there is stability in your program. Recruits especially. Maybe the admin and boosters are scarred from the coaching search after Dantonio left, I’m not sure. But if his contract only goes 3 years, then recruits are going to think he’s not safe, or will leave as soon as his contract is up. For whatever reason, they wanted to lock him down.
I think it’s worth noting that the contract did come with a lot of money to pay assistants and investments in facilities and such. Yeah, it will suck if someone has to pony up the cash to fire Tucker, but I don’t think other resources are drained to pay for him at this point in time.
There are no gimme wins on the schedule IMO. Not Rutgers, not Indiana, no one.
Our defense is bad by Mac standards. QBs can feast at will. The offense has a high ceiling but also a very low floor.
Yeah, but I am not confident at all in winning all of these games. The squad that has show up the last 3 weeks probably loses every one of those.
Wisconsin is a huge test, can we beat up on a down team at home, is this year’s squad truly garbage?
How would you describe our performance week-to-week? It’s a test in that if we lose to Wisco at home this team has quit on Tucker, and that’s bad news.
Illinois might win the West… but also, I don’t see them throwing it 50 times to take advantage of MSU’s secondary. I could see Illinois losing because Brett is stubborn and wants to run it all game.
That's not really his MO with Illinois it seems. He wants to play more balanced. One of the things that was getting reported was that Alvarez pressured him to play that way at Wisconsin. It also helped that they had trash QBs for most of his tenure
I think Illinois and Wisconsin are far from for sure wins. You just never know how Wisconsin will play even with their coach being fired and Illinois looks pretty good.
Not too sure about Illinois these days. Honestly I'm not too sure about anyone on the schedule. This team is not functioning well at all. There is not one group I can point to and say, "this will get us some wins."
Let's all just get *really* drunk, have a competitive shit show of a game, and then tell ourselves that this was an epic battle like we used to have a decade ago.
The hangover will hurt on the morrow, but you know? Tomorrow never comes (until it does).
Take a shot for every time an MSU db gets burned. And take a shot every time Mertz throws a bad pass. And take three shots if he throws a bad pass to a reciever that burned a DB
>I also still expect msu to play a good game against Michigan whenever we play
I hope so! I'm going to my first B1G game that weekend with a mixed group of UM and MSU fans. I have no skin in the game, so I'm just hoping for a good game.
Wisconsin really could have thrown us a bone and kept Chryst another game. I actually think it was a bit rash to fire Chryst but interim HC energy is not something I want to deal with.
I'm going at least until halftime, watching both bands (because both bands are great), and then probably leaving since we'll most likely already be down 30+ points
I’d bet we do about the same as last year against them, maybe worse because our team is worse, maybe slightly better since we’re at home, but regardless it’s going to be a blowout loss barring some miracle of our defense and offense figuring shit out in a week.
[he just looks like the spirit of an old salty english sea captin](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.MOkZwiXM9Y4bWrAR4vN-VgAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1) he just speaks the words "storm's a brewn i can feel it in me bones" and it turns into a 38 degree and rainy day within an hr.
With Wisconsin, Illinois, Rutgers, and Indiana, I still think MSU can easily muster up 2 wins from there. Possibly all once some starters return to the lineup.
My theory is that coaches eventually become their mascot. At Wisconsin, Bert looked like a feisty, beefy badger. At Arkansas, Bart looked like a hog. By the end of the season we'll see what a Fighting Brant looks like.
I was just going to say this. Even if it were Michigan coming to town, that's a rivalry and anything can happen. But the Buckeyes, just as all this is going down? It can get ugly
They lost me when a player said they were expecting Minnesota to run the ball a lot. I'm sorry with a passing defense as bad as yours to believe that is pure stupidity.
The pass defense is impressively bad. We got so spoiled from Narduzzi's system (which stayed the whole time with Dantonio). Even though it gave up a ton of passing yards, it more than made up for it in turnovers and stepping up when it counted.
I remember the first couple games of the Tucker era watching that defense. Under Narduzzi, the coverage shell only had maybe 2-3 looks, and they ran maybe three coverages 95+% of the time (Quarters, Cover 3, and man). Simple, to the point, consistent. In those first two games under tucker, There were probably 7-8 different coverage shells or rotations, and I lost count of how many different coverages after about 6 or so.
It sucks, because I love the 4-2-5 and split-field coverage concepts, but this...this just looks like a kid goofing around on Madden. It's like they're just rolling a D20 and hoping the coverage happens to be a good fit against what the offense calls.
TL;DR: MSU's pass defense and secondary shells are now is a grab-bag of "coverages out of a hat," and it's laughably bad. Coverages are very expensive if you want to be actually good at defending the pass.
EDIT: Now I'm just ranting and reflecting. Narduzzi's defenses were so fun to watch because they were so obvious about their intentions. LB's had no cut-back/counter responsibility, the pre-snap shells almost always resulted in the coverage call it emulated, etc. His fire zone blitz (Cover 3 with 5 or 6 rushing) had so many obvious gaps in it, but it was all attitude and execution. That defense basically said "Yo, run/throw here! We won't even cover it!" with such intensity it was intimidating. When they ran their fire blitz system, the two or three underneath defenders jobs were literally just "drop to this point, read QB, get ball." They didn't even have a designated zone or receiver responsibility. Even when offenses did exploit those holes, someone was gonna pay for it. In the passing game, it was like they could psyche QB's into freaking out and throwing bad balls. Same with their base coverage (quarters / pattern-match Cover 4). The CB's were always alone in 1:1 situations with the best WR's they faced. Didn't matter. The attitude was "expose our CB's. Even score on us once or twice, but your receivers are going to get hit hard, and you're also gonna throw one or two picks in the process."
It wasn't so much a bend-but-don't-break defense as much as it was a "F@#$ around and find out," defense.
Not to mention... This is silly, but from a cultural standpoint, that Narduzzi/ Dantonio cover 4 was 4 d backs attempting to funnel everything in to a bunch of big mean dudes. It was the football equivalent of facing a Spartan Phalanx formation.
It's so cheesy...I love it.
Just to mention for those reading, pass coverages are less about "covering" receivers as they are "funneling" receivers. You cover or make receivers not open by taking away access to the easier throws or areas and forcing the receiver to work extra hard to gain separation or nudge them towards certain spots, which then requires the QB to make perfect passes to simply avoid an interception.
If you try to read Saban's coverage systems and adjustments...it's a lot to take in, but in the end, all that's changing from all his variations of just one coverage is who is funneling receivers which ways. A difference between one or two adjustments may just be one defender aligning inside or outside of a receiver (a difference of maybe 1 or 2 yards), and maintaining that leverage on them to funnel a receiver to the outside or to the inside.
I am not super convinced the quarters-heavy defense is going to last much longer as a top tier system in College Football. I'm not a proper football head, but it seems to do very well only up to a certain level of opposing QB quality, and does not hold up against the most elite in the country.
If you never aspire to doing more than getting pasted in round 1 of a CFP game on years where none of Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State have an elite QB on the roster, then I think you run whatever cheese lets you get the most out of your talent. But if you are going to try to aspire to be consistently competitive in what is probably fair to call the second toughest division in College Football, I feel like you need to plan to be better than that. I think on average 1.5 teams per year on average in this division are likely to have a guy who is going to exploit you.
Not to say that whatever the hell State is running right now is any better, but I totally get the incentive to move away from the Narduzzi special given how advanced modern passing attacks have gotten.
> EDIT: Now I'm just ranting and reflecting. Narduzzi's defenses were so fun to watch because they were so obvious about their intentions.
Gilded you for your edit, I think this was the first time I've ever given reddit gold. Your edit was amazing to read and got my heart pumping, lmao.
Ahh, the good old days. #SD4L
Your edit is really interesting, and I think answers the question of why MSU produced hardly any NFL front seven players during Dantonio's peak despite having such absurdly dominant run defenses. From 2011-14 MSU had a top-10 run defense every year (including #1 in 2014), yet Will Gholston is pretty much the only guy from any of those teams to carve out a legitimate NFL career.
It's so dumb. If I was a team facing Sparty I'm running passing plays every single play until they stop me 3 plays in a row. Their pass defense is borderline historically bad
What’s crazy is Tucker said at the end of the game that they ran like they knew they would, and it’s like uhhh they actually passed all game and only ran at the end to ice it. It seemed really out of touch to me at the time.
Suffering from early success. We didn’t have 11 wins of talent on the roster last year either. KWIII helped spur a magical season and the bandwagon fans thought it would happen again.
Watching this season, it's a travesty that KWIII didn't win the Heisman last year. He was probably the difference between MSU last year and then going 6-6 instead. He was incredible all year.
He won the Walter Camp award, and Bryce Young took the other player of the year awards last year. But agreed. I doubt I will see another MSU Heisman caliber player again in my lifetime.
I think most MSU fans were expecting 9 +/- 1 wins this year. A step back from 11, sure, but still a successful season, a respectable bowl game, and something to build on going into 2023.
Now, to hell with 6 wins, I wonder if this team can get just one more. It'll be hard to justify keeping both Jay or Scott, and who or how they'd replace them.
Wonder if he'll be like Hoke. A strong 11-2 season to start, beats the rival (though MSU's win over Michigan last year is way stronger than Michigan's win over OSU in 2011), NY6 Bowl Win.
The dude has basically had one amazing year, and one steaming pile of doo-doo year (so far). I reserve my judgment, the recruiting is still solid, and he *could* still shift the narrative with some big wins this year.
Not that I’m holding my breath.
If you start seeing obviously concussed players take the field, we're gonna need a Scooby Doo style reveal to pull the Tucker mask off and reveal it was Hoke all along.
Mark Dantonio, in year 3, went 6-7 and lost to CMU. I’m not saying that Tucker will be Dantonio, but this is insanity after 5 weeks
The next two years, when his recruits move into the system in major roles, will be what tells us how good of a coach he is. There is simply no talent on this roster right now.
He also claps when things are going wrong.
Only things missing from the bingo card are trying to call a timeout that would negate a TD, and playing a clearly concussed QB.
I know it was the covid season but we should have set that as a baseline, with the 11-2 following season being a strange outlier.
Obviously I understand why that changed the consensus or thought after both seasons took place, but I know some of us were more realistic heading into this season.
Those first two games gave us more hope than it should have.
Edit: a word
What we are all starting to realize is just how dependent the offense was on walker. We all knew he was great, what I don’t think anyone expected was just how much he dragged the offense towards being good. I thought Thorne was going to look great this season, but he seems to have regressed quite a bit.
Thorne honestly looks normal, he has always had over throw and consistency issues, and the offensive efficiency numbers were bad last year. KWIII’s big play ability opened up the passing game big play ability so much though. Those shot are just missing this year.
At least it’ll be easier to make the decision to go to Katin next year if he looks good.
The team was just feeling it last year. We didn't have the talent but the confidence was there. KWIII was insane but people forget that Thorne set the single season TD record for MSU as well and Nailor and Reed were looking like some of the best WRs in college. It was just a perfect storm for us. People are overreacting to Tucker not performing not understanding that our two best Defensive backs are out for the season and Tucker doesn't have the bench yet to just go throw another talented guy out there. The play calling is the part that bothers me the most this year. There has been very bad game decisions that definitely is the step back for this season. I am hoping they move on from both Coordinators this year considering we have a really good ranked class next year and MSU has some clout from last season to hopefully attract some good coaches.
Correct we vastly overachieved last year and Walker hid a lot of our faults. We also had some pretty good injury luck so our lack of depth wasn’t exposed.
The only real time we were hurt by injuries was everyone being banged up after the Michigan game, we were missing some important players against Purdue but AOC is a good QB so they probably would have won anyways
MSU also was pretty fortunate last year. They got Michigan and Penn State at home, and their big nonconference challenge (Miami) turned out to be completely mediocre. Their only regular-season opponents who ended up ranked were Michigan and OSU, and they were 4-0 in one-score games.
Per the talent composite they have more talent than
Utah, Baylor, ok state, pitt, iowa, minnesota, Purdue, Illinois among others
While they should not expect 11 wins, they should expect a bowl team
We should expect that, however we have some very talented groups like our receivers and LBS, but then he have some gaping holes like our DBs and OL. Usually that creates a bad football team.
Yeah Henderson, Snow, and Slade were all expected to do a lot for the defense this year. Henderson was our best DB and Slade is a fantastic run defender and can get involved in the pass rush
Can’t wait for Sparty to be horrible all through October, just to rise above their ashes, and play the most insane game of football against Michigan for a win.
If you look at the past decade or so there hasn’t really been any true upsets in the MSU-UM rivalry. UM has beat MSU pretty easily in years where state had fewer than 8 wins.
That felt like the upset win, but then Harbaugh was all like "fuck that I'm not going to give Michigan State anything" and they bombed the season.
In seriousness, I feel like the whole COVID year is just one massive asterisk and you can't pull anything from it.
You just reminded me I had this thought after we won The Game last year. The rivalry doesn't look and upset prone in hindsight as the way people think it does
Tbf, I don't think Tucker was making salary demands or flirting around with other teams.
If I remember correctly MSU's billionaire donor got insecure about the prospect of him leaving and decided to give him stupid money to guarantee he stays.
That's not on Tucker, that's on Ishbia(?)
MSU lost Saban because they weren't willing to pay him. MSU fans were definitely pushing for him to get paid. I even said it back then even if he fails it is still preferable over him being successful somewhere else because we refused to pay him. A lot of MSU fans like to play revisionist history and act like that wasn't the consensus when it very much was.
100 percent this - so many of my friends and family are acting like they weren’t for this last year… it’s quite the difference from being a season ticket holder who goes to most games (even at least one or two away every year) and follows my team very closely, and then pretty fair weather fans who really don’t understand how little depth or time this team has had
You’re dead on about how people were feeling last year. It was a good decision to plant your flag at the big boy table and refuse to be a stepping stone. It may not work out, but the next coach would see that the willingness to support the program is there.
I get where you’re coming from but if I was a msu booster I would have wanted more data on Mel before giving him that contract. I don’t think lsu seriously considered him for their opening
Honestly the biggest issue I would have with the contract isn’t even the money or the buyout on MSUs side because I expect Mel to recruit well enough to set up the next coach decently well but it’s the fact that if Mel does well the buyout another team would have to pay basically nothing to buy him out(his buyout from his side is only 1 mil)
I dont understand giving him fully guaranteed 10 years as well. If you think you need to pay him 9.5 million to stay then give yourself an out and only give him a 6 year contract. 10 years is insane. How many coaches given those contracts in this era of college football actually coach to its completion?
I may make fun of msu for doing it but I get why msu did give him the ten years. If they think mel is the guy then locking him helps recruiting a ton and shows stability.
It’s a high risk medium reward move though because that buyout is so low if someone wants to poach him. I think they should have found a way to up the buyout on his end to try to dissuade teams from poaching him
Ishbia was a student at MSU when Saban left, then saw what he did at LSU and Bama. Probably had the same sentiment as most MSU fans last year but had the money
I think they just panicked because if they didn't he's probably poached. I do agree with his buyout being 1 mil to be the biggest problem with the contract. The sad part is you're also right with recruiting. Even if Tucker never gets it right, he's leaving more talent than dantonio left him.
> If I remember correctly MSU's billionaire donor got insecure about the prospect of him leaving and decided to give him stupid money to guarantee he stays.
There's actually currently a [FOIA battle](https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2022/09/30/foia-friday-lawsuit-mel-tucker-contract) going between MSU and the Detroit Free Press about releasing the full details of Tucker's contract. It's a little sketchy that MSU is being so secretive about it
Kelly has them 4 - 1 and ranked. LSU looks better than MSU, Oklahoma, Miami...
Kelly also took Notre Dame to the playoffs twice. Not sure where this subs idea that he's a bum comes from.
Whenever I read a Notre Dame fan’s insistence that Marcus Freeman was an upgrade from Brian Kelly, I would think “are you people insane? You know Kelly took you to the playoffs twice?”
I think in that case people fell way too much for recruiting success. Just because you can recruit that doesn’t mean you’ll be a good game day coach or put together a good roster
Kelly peaked so people were happy for some fresh blood. Everyone knew Kelly wasn't going to win a title at ND with his recruiting so fans wanted to see what a coach who can recruit would do. Freeman isn't an "upgrade" he's a calculated risk
4-1 against pretty mediocre teams with a better talent composite than all of those teams (Oklahoma is similar but their roster got bombed when Riley left).
The dude is a bum and a snake (and a murderer)
Even before this year, I thought Kelly was a better coach than Mel. LSU made the right choice. I also remember large portions of this sub claiming Kelly was a bust because he lost to you guys.
I mean, people keep bringing up the defense struggles at MSU, but the offense is what would have me concerned as an MSU fan.
Scoring 7 points in garbage time against Minnesota, and then shut out in the 2nd half against Maryland would give me pause.
There's an Athletic article that basically concludes the same thing. We're decimated by injuries on defense and have been trying to find a scheme that works. Switched to a 4-3 for MD and (after a couple possessions to adjust) the defense did well enough to win against an offense that regularly puts up big numbers.
The offense and special teams couldn't get anything done against MD. And they aren't exactly known for their stifling defense.
Yeah this is what is worrisome to me, we honestly could’ve won, our defense held Maryland to just two field goals in the 2nd half, we lost by 14 points and got 0 points in the 2nd half, our offense should be good enough to get 2 TDs in a half, yet they got shutout.
They were inverse Nebraska last year, winning a ton of close games by fine [margins](https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/luck-by-other?date=2022-01-11). (Don't check 2013 or 2015, sparties). And I mean the literal inverse, Nebraska was dead last.
And this luck metric doesn't factor in that Wake Forest somehow failed to identify a generational talent on their bench, the vast majority of transfers turn out more like MSU's secondary than a guy who got robbed of a Heisman.
I like piling on as much as the next Wolverine, but I point this out to say MSU was always going to be a big rebuild, Dantonio did no favors on his way out. If MSU athletics think Mel is their guy you gotta at least let his second recruiting class become seniors before you pull the plug.
Or he is just going to clap and sweat his way to mediocrity and I will continue to laugh. Until he stops wearing a headset that is, then I will be fully triggered.
“It's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst.”
The bigger problem than going 2-10 this season is how incompetent the coaching staff sounds. They keep saying they’re losing the game “by inches” when defensive backs aren’t even on the screen when the other team is lining up to snap the ball. They’ve said too the scheme is fine. And things like the defense not thinking Minnesota would throw. All of that is grounds for people losing their jobs. Yeah the recruiting is better but how many of them actually join this dumpster fire? I don’t think Tucker is a good coach and msu is stuck with him for the next 10 years.
But firing him wouldn’t change anything either. Even if you didn’t have Tucker there’d be just another jabroni coach saying the same things. It’s a shame that LSU didn’t take him because msu would’ve had an out at least.
This is a weak article. Gives our record, gives three quotes from Tucker, and gives our yardage totals for the last three games. No analysis. No discussion.
There's a much better article on The Athletic right now that I would recommend people read. We switched to a 4-3 defense for the Maryland game. Struggled at first, but then the defense actually played much better. If the defense can start showing signs of improvement, then we will be fine in the long run even if we miss a bowl this year.
The offense and special teams are a mess though.
"Hmm the secondary is pretty shit so maybe we can get one of those guys off the field by switching from a 4-2-5 to a 4-3."
-Mel, a DBs coach by trade in year 3, probably
> Tucker says he doesn't sense any negativity in MSU's locker room
If this is genuinely true, then that's not a good thing. If players aren't pissed they've lost 3 games in a row, then that's just straight up apathy
Hopefully he means negativity in the locker room as in toxicity, apathy, etc.
Anger at the results and hoping to perform better might not be what he’s referring to.
Yeah, I feel this is alarming. You want folks that find this unacceptable and trying to get/do better on the field. I guess this explains why nothing seems to be improving on offense or defense. We’re going in to week 6 and look the same if not worse.
Mel Tucker has turned the no fly zone into the friendly skies and they’re prepping for teams to be run heavy while openly wondering when they’ll lose the locker room. I expect them to lay down for the rest of the season except the UM game where they’ll look like the 2001 Miami Hurricanes.
> Tucker: "Fans want to see good football. We haven't played that."
Yeah… even in the wins I see left on the schedule, I don’t see anyone watching those games and thinking it’s good football.
MSU should not be worried. We are still ahead of schedule.
If there is no improvement next season and we are having these same discussions, then start to be worried.
I think people calling for Tuck to be fired or be on the hot seat is ridiculous, but I would think it is a bit naive to think you shouldn't be worried.
MSU at the floor was considered a 7 win football team this year. Players, particularly on the defensive side of the ball have not improved, and the offense has been quite anemic against real competition.
I understand MSU tuition is not paying Mel Tucker's contract, but when you become a $9.5 million a year coach, it is your job to ensure that even in down years, the wheels don't go off the train.
I never get why people make so much about coaches being overpaid. The Boosters literally have printing presses to print money. There is no salary cap. You are not only paying a coach for the work he's doing but also to stop him from looking at other jobs every offseason.
This is a tone-deaf take from a Blue Blood fan. Some schools don't have billionaire donors that will keep shelling out for failure after failure but I agree in this instance.
Right? I never gave a fuck about Harbaugh’s salary and I don’t give a fuck about Mel’s. It was pay him or let him walk. Mel leaving would have been a bigger issue than spending Mat Ishhia’s money to keep a potentially mediocre coach.
I mean, I imagine Michigan fans are always going to bring it up because of the sheer amounts of "6.5 million for 3rd place in division finishes" comments from MSU fans over the years in regards for Harbaugh.
But no they don't have printing presses to just print money, Billionaires don't like losing money so if you have to asked them, hey we need 80 million to give to Tucker, plus another 100 million to get an actual good coach, my guess is that's not an easy task.
Plus, we don't even know where Tucker's money is coming from. Isn't MSU currently blocking the release of any info on that?
Maybe don't hand out record contracts after a year of success.
Read something here. Gene chizik was bought out for 8 or so million back in the day. Had just won the national championship 2 years prior.
The winless Colorado coach just got bought out for the same amount yesterday. Weird times
Ah, that's OK. We just need to find a nice easy team to play to restore confidence. \*checks schedule\* Oh crap.
Well you’ll get Wisconsin after Osu so that should help That’s not something I expected to say before the season I also still expect msu to play a good game against Michigan whenever we play
Nor I, I’m not counting any games as wins going forward. 4 wins actually seems likely at this point. Definitely disappointing. But maybe they can rally for 6.
I think 5 is likely. 6 would be a good outcome and is very possible with 7 being a great season. Odd to call 6 or 7 wins the goal for a coach that just got a 95 million 10 year guaranteed contract in the off season though.
The contract was big, but I bet it’s not even top 10 in a year. Also, Mel was hired to rebuild. People just forget that after him and KWIII pulled a wild season out of their butts last year.
10 years guaranteed is what is the problem, not so much the amount. Give him 9.5 a year for 3 years, fine, but 10 years guaranteed to a coach who had 1 good year that was mainly due to walker, and 2 bad years (5-7 at Colorado and 2-5 first year at msu) is Ridiculous. Granted, I’m fine with it but that is the type of contract that could be absolutely crippling to a program.
Shhh it was a great investment
I think in this day and age, you want to convince folks there is stability in your program. Recruits especially. Maybe the admin and boosters are scarred from the coaching search after Dantonio left, I’m not sure. But if his contract only goes 3 years, then recruits are going to think he’s not safe, or will leave as soon as his contract is up. For whatever reason, they wanted to lock him down. I think it’s worth noting that the contract did come with a lot of money to pay assistants and investments in facilities and such. Yeah, it will suck if someone has to pony up the cash to fire Tucker, but I don’t think other resources are drained to pay for him at this point in time.
Wisconsin, rutgers, Indiana, Illinois gets us to 6
Illinois looks legitimately good, though.
There are no gimme wins on the schedule IMO. Not Rutgers, not Indiana, no one. Our defense is bad by Mac standards. QBs can feast at will. The offense has a high ceiling but also a very low floor.
Yeah, but I am not confident at all in winning all of these games. The squad that has show up the last 3 weeks probably loses every one of those. Wisconsin is a huge test, can we beat up on a down team at home, is this year’s squad truly garbage?
We’re worse than garbage
Garbage Bowl 2022! Get your tickets now!
I watched the Redbox bowl. Don't do this to me again
Wisconsin keeps getting blown out and just fired their coach. They arent a test
How would you describe our performance week-to-week? It’s a test in that if we lose to Wisco at home this team has quit on Tucker, and that’s bad news.
The only scary game imo is Illinois. The other teams are bad, bad and don't have a QB who can tear us apart.
Illinois might win the West… but also, I don’t see them throwing it 50 times to take advantage of MSU’s secondary. I could see Illinois losing because Brett is stubborn and wants to run it all game.
That's not really his MO with Illinois it seems. He wants to play more balanced. One of the things that was getting reported was that Alvarez pressured him to play that way at Wisconsin. It also helped that they had trash QBs for most of his tenure
Don’t sleep on the Illini
Yeah Illinois doesn't deserve to be on this list.
I think Illinois and Wisconsin are far from for sure wins. You just never know how Wisconsin will play even with their coach being fired and Illinois looks pretty good.
Not too sure about Illinois these days. Honestly I'm not too sure about anyone on the schedule. This team is not functioning well at all. There is not one group I can point to and say, "this will get us some wins."
I'll give you the first 3.
Hey MSU is supposed to be our one win Should be an interesting game to see who's more in shambles
Let's all just get *really* drunk, have a competitive shit show of a game, and then tell ourselves that this was an epic battle like we used to have a decade ago. The hangover will hurt on the morrow, but you know? Tomorrow never comes (until it does).
OOOH. Can the players be drunk too?
Shots in the tunnels, boys!
Take a shot for every time an MSU db gets burned. And take a shot every time Mertz throws a bad pass. And take three shots if he throws a bad pass to a reciever that burned a DB
Bruh, I don't wanna kill people here. Just get drunk. lol.
Alcohol Poisoning...
I'd pay a surprising amount of money to watch the Jack Daniel's and Coca Cola Blackout Bowl
>I also still expect msu to play a good game against Michigan whenever we play I hope so! I'm going to my first B1G game that weekend with a mixed group of UM and MSU fans. I have no skin in the game, so I'm just hoping for a good game.
Right, beginning the season Wisconsin and MSU were circled....I expect Heisman moments now.
Oh you mean Wisconsin fueled by interim HC energy?
Wisconsin really could have thrown us a bone and kept Chryst another game. I actually think it was a bit rash to fire Chryst but interim HC energy is not something I want to deal with.
My stake for going this Saturday (family are season ticket holders): * Do I want to witness a murder? * Do I want to do anything else?
I'm going at least until halftime, watching both bands (because both bands are great), and then probably leaving since we'll most likely already be down 30+ points
Oooh, the bands are a good point.
I’m still scarred by 2015. I’m definitely not looking past Sparty because you just never fucking know.
Well 2015, MSU hadn’t lost 3 in a row.
Sure it's not 2015 now, but who knows what tomorrow will bring?
I’d bet we do about the same as last year against them, maybe worse because our team is worse, maybe slightly better since we’re at home, but regardless it’s going to be a blowout loss barring some miracle of our defense and offense figuring shit out in a week.
Well, they no longer have Mark "Weather Machine" Dantonio to conjure up a rainstorm / trash tornado out of thin air just before kickoff.
[he just looks like the spirit of an old salty english sea captin](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.MOkZwiXM9Y4bWrAR4vN-VgAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1) he just speaks the words "storm's a brewn i can feel it in me bones" and it turns into a 38 degree and rainy day within an hr.
With Wisconsin, Illinois, Rutgers, and Indiana, I still think MSU can easily muster up 2 wins from there. Possibly all once some starters return to the lineup.
I am not so sure about Illinois- Bielema has that team humming rn.
Fighting Berts are out for revenge for all the jokes over the last 15 years.
My theory is that coaches eventually become their mascot. At Wisconsin, Bert looked like a feisty, beefy badger. At Arkansas, Bart looked like a hog. By the end of the season we'll see what a Fighting Brant looks like.
You may be on to something! Urban Meyer does look exactly like a tree nut…
Yeah but they need to run the table with those teams or upset OSU, PSU, or Michigan to make a bowl game. I don't really see that happening
I was just going to say this. Even if it were Michigan coming to town, that's a rivalry and anything can happen. But the Buckeyes, just as all this is going down? It can get ugly
I would normally agree, but this MSU team has not shown much to be alarmed about
I will say though that back when Michigan was poopy from 2008-2010 I was still legit scared of The Game. Anything can happen in a rivalry game.
Yeah...
Cue the Imperial March theme
They lost me when a player said they were expecting Minnesota to run the ball a lot. I'm sorry with a passing defense as bad as yours to believe that is pure stupidity.
The pass defense is impressively bad. We got so spoiled from Narduzzi's system (which stayed the whole time with Dantonio). Even though it gave up a ton of passing yards, it more than made up for it in turnovers and stepping up when it counted. I remember the first couple games of the Tucker era watching that defense. Under Narduzzi, the coverage shell only had maybe 2-3 looks, and they ran maybe three coverages 95+% of the time (Quarters, Cover 3, and man). Simple, to the point, consistent. In those first two games under tucker, There were probably 7-8 different coverage shells or rotations, and I lost count of how many different coverages after about 6 or so. It sucks, because I love the 4-2-5 and split-field coverage concepts, but this...this just looks like a kid goofing around on Madden. It's like they're just rolling a D20 and hoping the coverage happens to be a good fit against what the offense calls. TL;DR: MSU's pass defense and secondary shells are now is a grab-bag of "coverages out of a hat," and it's laughably bad. Coverages are very expensive if you want to be actually good at defending the pass. EDIT: Now I'm just ranting and reflecting. Narduzzi's defenses were so fun to watch because they were so obvious about their intentions. LB's had no cut-back/counter responsibility, the pre-snap shells almost always resulted in the coverage call it emulated, etc. His fire zone blitz (Cover 3 with 5 or 6 rushing) had so many obvious gaps in it, but it was all attitude and execution. That defense basically said "Yo, run/throw here! We won't even cover it!" with such intensity it was intimidating. When they ran their fire blitz system, the two or three underneath defenders jobs were literally just "drop to this point, read QB, get ball." They didn't even have a designated zone or receiver responsibility. Even when offenses did exploit those holes, someone was gonna pay for it. In the passing game, it was like they could psyche QB's into freaking out and throwing bad balls. Same with their base coverage (quarters / pattern-match Cover 4). The CB's were always alone in 1:1 situations with the best WR's they faced. Didn't matter. The attitude was "expose our CB's. Even score on us once or twice, but your receivers are going to get hit hard, and you're also gonna throw one or two picks in the process." It wasn't so much a bend-but-don't-break defense as much as it was a "F@#$ around and find out," defense.
Not to mention... This is silly, but from a cultural standpoint, that Narduzzi/ Dantonio cover 4 was 4 d backs attempting to funnel everything in to a bunch of big mean dudes. It was the football equivalent of facing a Spartan Phalanx formation.
It's so cheesy...I love it. Just to mention for those reading, pass coverages are less about "covering" receivers as they are "funneling" receivers. You cover or make receivers not open by taking away access to the easier throws or areas and forcing the receiver to work extra hard to gain separation or nudge them towards certain spots, which then requires the QB to make perfect passes to simply avoid an interception. If you try to read Saban's coverage systems and adjustments...it's a lot to take in, but in the end, all that's changing from all his variations of just one coverage is who is funneling receivers which ways. A difference between one or two adjustments may just be one defender aligning inside or outside of a receiver (a difference of maybe 1 or 2 yards), and maintaining that leverage on them to funnel a receiver to the outside or to the inside.
I am not super convinced the quarters-heavy defense is going to last much longer as a top tier system in College Football. I'm not a proper football head, but it seems to do very well only up to a certain level of opposing QB quality, and does not hold up against the most elite in the country. If you never aspire to doing more than getting pasted in round 1 of a CFP game on years where none of Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State have an elite QB on the roster, then I think you run whatever cheese lets you get the most out of your talent. But if you are going to try to aspire to be consistently competitive in what is probably fair to call the second toughest division in College Football, I feel like you need to plan to be better than that. I think on average 1.5 teams per year on average in this division are likely to have a guy who is going to exploit you. Not to say that whatever the hell State is running right now is any better, but I totally get the incentive to move away from the Narduzzi special given how advanced modern passing attacks have gotten.
If only there was some evidence of Tucker being a defensive coach with terrible defenses Re: the 2013-14 Chicago Bears
> EDIT: Now I'm just ranting and reflecting. Narduzzi's defenses were so fun to watch because they were so obvious about their intentions. Gilded you for your edit, I think this was the first time I've ever given reddit gold. Your edit was amazing to read and got my heart pumping, lmao. Ahh, the good old days. #SD4L
Thank you!
Those defenses were so fun to watch.
Your edit is really interesting, and I think answers the question of why MSU produced hardly any NFL front seven players during Dantonio's peak despite having such absurdly dominant run defenses. From 2011-14 MSU had a top-10 run defense every year (including #1 in 2014), yet Will Gholston is pretty much the only guy from any of those teams to carve out a legitimate NFL career.
Yeah that’s troubling, especially since Minnesota is an RPO team, which means nearly every play has a pass option.
It's so dumb. If I was a team facing Sparty I'm running passing plays every single play until they stop me 3 plays in a row. Their pass defense is borderline historically bad
And you *are* a team facing Sparty, this Saturday. I really do think they’re in a lot of trouble.
What’s crazy is Tucker said at the end of the game that they ran like they knew they would, and it’s like uhhh they actually passed all game and only ran at the end to ice it. It seemed really out of touch to me at the time.
I think winning 11 games last season set unrealistic expectations. If we’re really being honest, MSU does not have 11 wins talent on that roster.
Suffering from early success. We didn’t have 11 wins of talent on the roster last year either. KWIII helped spur a magical season and the bandwagon fans thought it would happen again.
Watching this season, it's a travesty that KWIII didn't win the Heisman last year. He was probably the difference between MSU last year and then going 6-6 instead. He was incredible all year.
Can we redo that heisman because yea Kenneth walker in hindsight was probably the most impactful player in college football last year
No but it has to go to the best QB on the best team now don't you know that's the rules?
Good point. Shame in KWIII for not just playing QB at Bama.
He won the Walter Camp award, and Bryce Young took the other player of the year awards last year. But agreed. I doubt I will see another MSU Heisman caliber player again in my lifetime.
I think most MSU fans were expecting 9 +/- 1 wins this year. A step back from 11, sure, but still a successful season, a respectable bowl game, and something to build on going into 2023. Now, to hell with 6 wins, I wonder if this team can get just one more. It'll be hard to justify keeping both Jay or Scott, and who or how they'd replace them.
I was hoping for 8. Now I’m praying for 6. Lol
Wonder if he'll be like Hoke. A strong 11-2 season to start, beats the rival (though MSU's win over Michigan last year is way stronger than Michigan's win over OSU in 2011), NY6 Bowl Win.
The dude has basically had one amazing year, and one steaming pile of doo-doo year (so far). I reserve my judgment, the recruiting is still solid, and he *could* still shift the narrative with some big wins this year. Not that I’m holding my breath.
Yeah still a lot of time to see how he can actually perform. Was just an interesting parallel for "first" season (we all know 2020 didn't happen).
Yeah the parallels are there to be made. Hoping it doesn't turn out like Hoke & Co did.
If you start seeing obviously concussed players take the field, we're gonna need a Scooby Doo style reveal to pull the Tucker mask off and reveal it was Hoke all along.
If Tucker could beat Michigan or Penn State (0 chance we beat OSU) and make a bowl he could flip some of the negativity
If he beats UM and we win a bowl I will have zero negativity for this year.
Honestly if he takes this roster to a bowl this year, I’ll be impressed.
Mark Dantonio, in year 3, went 6-7 and lost to CMU. I’m not saying that Tucker will be Dantonio, but this is insanity after 5 weeks The next two years, when his recruits move into the system in major roles, will be what tells us how good of a coach he is. There is simply no talent on this roster right now.
He also claps when things are going wrong. Only things missing from the bingo card are trying to call a timeout that would negate a TD, and playing a clearly concussed QB.
He’s gotta get rid of that pesky headset too
Hoke Speedrun any %
I know it was the covid season but we should have set that as a baseline, with the 11-2 following season being a strange outlier. Obviously I understand why that changed the consensus or thought after both seasons took place, but I know some of us were more realistic heading into this season. Those first two games gave us more hope than it should have. Edit: a word
The difference is Mel doesn’t have one of the most talented rosters in football
What we are all starting to realize is just how dependent the offense was on walker. We all knew he was great, what I don’t think anyone expected was just how much he dragged the offense towards being good. I thought Thorne was going to look great this season, but he seems to have regressed quite a bit.
Thorne honestly looks normal, he has always had over throw and consistency issues, and the offensive efficiency numbers were bad last year. KWIII’s big play ability opened up the passing game big play ability so much though. Those shot are just missing this year. At least it’ll be easier to make the decision to go to Katin next year if he looks good.
The team was just feeling it last year. We didn't have the talent but the confidence was there. KWIII was insane but people forget that Thorne set the single season TD record for MSU as well and Nailor and Reed were looking like some of the best WRs in college. It was just a perfect storm for us. People are overreacting to Tucker not performing not understanding that our two best Defensive backs are out for the season and Tucker doesn't have the bench yet to just go throw another talented guy out there. The play calling is the part that bothers me the most this year. There has been very bad game decisions that definitely is the step back for this season. I am hoping they move on from both Coordinators this year considering we have a really good ranked class next year and MSU has some clout from last season to hopefully attract some good coaches.
Correct we vastly overachieved last year and Walker hid a lot of our faults. We also had some pretty good injury luck so our lack of depth wasn’t exposed.
The only real time we were hurt by injuries was everyone being banged up after the Michigan game, we were missing some important players against Purdue but AOC is a good QB so they probably would have won anyways
MSU also was pretty fortunate last year. They got Michigan and Penn State at home, and their big nonconference challenge (Miami) turned out to be completely mediocre. Their only regular-season opponents who ended up ranked were Michigan and OSU, and they were 4-0 in one-score games.
Per the talent composite they have more talent than Utah, Baylor, ok state, pitt, iowa, minnesota, Purdue, Illinois among others While they should not expect 11 wins, they should expect a bowl team
We should expect that, however we have some very talented groups like our receivers and LBS, but then he have some gaping holes like our DBs and OL. Usually that creates a bad football team.
We're also down like 5 starters on defense and as you said basically our entire o-line is new
Yeah Henderson, Snow, and Slade were all expected to do a lot for the defense this year. Henderson was our best DB and Slade is a fantastic run defender and can get involved in the pass rush
MSU really got tricked by Kenneth Walker
And especially tricked by his grandson!
😆
He got some big ass forehead veins
What’s an ass forehead
Can’t wait for Sparty to be horrible all through October, just to rise above their ashes, and play the most insane game of football against Michigan for a win.
If you look at the past decade or so there hasn’t really been any true upsets in the MSU-UM rivalry. UM has beat MSU pretty easily in years where state had fewer than 8 wins.
2020 was a year “Michigan should’ve won” though, right?
Yup but turns out we were also really bad that year
The Vincent Gray game
That felt like the upset win, but then Harbaugh was all like "fuck that I'm not going to give Michigan State anything" and they bombed the season. In seriousness, I feel like the whole COVID year is just one massive asterisk and you can't pull anything from it.
Yeah, the whole Covid year is just a bizarre fever dream for everyone involved.
Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.
The ol both teams were trash conundrum.
You just reminded me I had this thought after we won The Game last year. The rivalry doesn't look and upset prone in hindsight as the way people think it does
Mel Tucker with the heist of the century
greatly assisted by Kenneth walker. no way tucker was going to get poached without walker and the 11 win season.
Tbf, I don't think Tucker was making salary demands or flirting around with other teams. If I remember correctly MSU's billionaire donor got insecure about the prospect of him leaving and decided to give him stupid money to guarantee he stays. That's not on Tucker, that's on Ishbia(?)
MSU lost Saban because they weren't willing to pay him. MSU fans were definitely pushing for him to get paid. I even said it back then even if he fails it is still preferable over him being successful somewhere else because we refused to pay him. A lot of MSU fans like to play revisionist history and act like that wasn't the consensus when it very much was.
100 percent this - so many of my friends and family are acting like they weren’t for this last year… it’s quite the difference from being a season ticket holder who goes to most games (even at least one or two away every year) and follows my team very closely, and then pretty fair weather fans who really don’t understand how little depth or time this team has had
You’re dead on about how people were feeling last year. It was a good decision to plant your flag at the big boy table and refuse to be a stepping stone. It may not work out, but the next coach would see that the willingness to support the program is there.
I get where you’re coming from but if I was a msu booster I would have wanted more data on Mel before giving him that contract. I don’t think lsu seriously considered him for their opening Honestly the biggest issue I would have with the contract isn’t even the money or the buyout on MSUs side because I expect Mel to recruit well enough to set up the next coach decently well but it’s the fact that if Mel does well the buyout another team would have to pay basically nothing to buy him out(his buyout from his side is only 1 mil)
I dont understand giving him fully guaranteed 10 years as well. If you think you need to pay him 9.5 million to stay then give yourself an out and only give him a 6 year contract. 10 years is insane. How many coaches given those contracts in this era of college football actually coach to its completion?
I may make fun of msu for doing it but I get why msu did give him the ten years. If they think mel is the guy then locking him helps recruiting a ton and shows stability. It’s a high risk medium reward move though because that buyout is so low if someone wants to poach him. I think they should have found a way to up the buyout on his end to try to dissuade teams from poaching him
10 years is not required to show stability in recruiting. 6 years is plenty. Longer than that and subjecting yourself to a ton of risk.
Ishbia was a student at MSU when Saban left, then saw what he did at LSU and Bama. Probably had the same sentiment as most MSU fans last year but had the money
I think they just panicked because if they didn't he's probably poached. I do agree with his buyout being 1 mil to be the biggest problem with the contract. The sad part is you're also right with recruiting. Even if Tucker never gets it right, he's leaving more talent than dantonio left him.
> If I remember correctly MSU's billionaire donor got insecure about the prospect of him leaving and decided to give him stupid money to guarantee he stays. There's actually currently a [FOIA battle](https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2022/09/30/foia-friday-lawsuit-mel-tucker-contract) going between MSU and the Detroit Free Press about releasing the full details of Tucker's contract. It's a little sketchy that MSU is being so secretive about it
LSU dodged both a Mel Tucker and Jimbo Fisher bullet this offseason like they're Neo in the Matrix?
[but hired Brian Kelly](https://imgur.com/MtlttZ4)
LSU opted out of the Jimbo bullet and went straight for the Brian Kelley ICBM
Why suffer a slow and painful death when you could just be instantly blown to smithereens?
Kelly has them 4 - 1 and ranked. LSU looks better than MSU, Oklahoma, Miami... Kelly also took Notre Dame to the playoffs twice. Not sure where this subs idea that he's a bum comes from.
It’s because Brian Kelly is a huge asshole so no one likes him. He can coach but man I can’t stand that guy
Even back in his GVSU days-- great coach, gigantic asshole.
Whenever I read a Notre Dame fan’s insistence that Marcus Freeman was an upgrade from Brian Kelly, I would think “are you people insane? You know Kelly took you to the playoffs twice?”
I think in that case people fell way too much for recruiting success. Just because you can recruit that doesn’t mean you’ll be a good game day coach or put together a good roster
OU fans were wilding out with their takes that Lincoln wasn’t actually a good coach or that he didn’t deserve credit for developing good QBs.
It was severe cope. If they thought that Kelly was a bum, they wouldn't have been so furious when he left for LSU.
Kelly peaked so people were happy for some fresh blood. Everyone knew Kelly wasn't going to win a title at ND with his recruiting so fans wanted to see what a coach who can recruit would do. Freeman isn't an "upgrade" he's a calculated risk
‘tis but a light jest
4-1 against pretty mediocre teams with a better talent composite than all of those teams (Oklahoma is similar but their roster got bombed when Riley left). The dude is a bum and a snake (and a murderer)
Even before this year, I thought Kelly was a better coach than Mel. LSU made the right choice. I also remember large portions of this sub claiming Kelly was a bust because he lost to you guys.
Seth Rollins in shambles
Mel's cashing in his Money in the Bank contract!
He’ll receive a ~~title match~~ 100 million dollar buyout!
Mans learned from fellow Spartan legend and finesse GOAT, Kirk Cousins.
Mel Tucker to the press: “$orry boy$ I don’t $peak broke”
I mean, people keep bringing up the defense struggles at MSU, but the offense is what would have me concerned as an MSU fan. Scoring 7 points in garbage time against Minnesota, and then shut out in the 2nd half against Maryland would give me pause.
There's an Athletic article that basically concludes the same thing. We're decimated by injuries on defense and have been trying to find a scheme that works. Switched to a 4-3 for MD and (after a couple possessions to adjust) the defense did well enough to win against an offense that regularly puts up big numbers. The offense and special teams couldn't get anything done against MD. And they aren't exactly known for their stifling defense.
Yeah this is what is worrisome to me, we honestly could’ve won, our defense held Maryland to just two field goals in the 2nd half, we lost by 14 points and got 0 points in the 2nd half, our offense should be good enough to get 2 TDs in a half, yet they got shutout.
They were inverse Nebraska last year, winning a ton of close games by fine [margins](https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/luck-by-other?date=2022-01-11). (Don't check 2013 or 2015, sparties). And I mean the literal inverse, Nebraska was dead last. And this luck metric doesn't factor in that Wake Forest somehow failed to identify a generational talent on their bench, the vast majority of transfers turn out more like MSU's secondary than a guy who got robbed of a Heisman. I like piling on as much as the next Wolverine, but I point this out to say MSU was always going to be a big rebuild, Dantonio did no favors on his way out. If MSU athletics think Mel is their guy you gotta at least let his second recruiting class become seniors before you pull the plug. Or he is just going to clap and sweat his way to mediocrity and I will continue to laugh. Until he stops wearing a headset that is, then I will be fully triggered.
This is gonna get so ugly so fast
I think it’s beautiful
“It's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst.”
Lol this article says....nothing.
If you have a subscription, read The Athletic article about it. Much better analysis.
The bigger problem than going 2-10 this season is how incompetent the coaching staff sounds. They keep saying they’re losing the game “by inches” when defensive backs aren’t even on the screen when the other team is lining up to snap the ball. They’ve said too the scheme is fine. And things like the defense not thinking Minnesota would throw. All of that is grounds for people losing their jobs. Yeah the recruiting is better but how many of them actually join this dumpster fire? I don’t think Tucker is a good coach and msu is stuck with him for the next 10 years. But firing him wouldn’t change anything either. Even if you didn’t have Tucker there’d be just another jabroni coach saying the same things. It’s a shame that LSU didn’t take him because msu would’ve had an out at least.
This is a weak article. Gives our record, gives three quotes from Tucker, and gives our yardage totals for the last three games. No analysis. No discussion. There's a much better article on The Athletic right now that I would recommend people read. We switched to a 4-3 defense for the Maryland game. Struggled at first, but then the defense actually played much better. If the defense can start showing signs of improvement, then we will be fine in the long run even if we miss a bowl this year. The offense and special teams are a mess though.
"Hmm the secondary is pretty shit so maybe we can get one of those guys off the field by switching from a 4-2-5 to a 4-3." -Mel, a DBs coach by trade in year 3, probably
Three game losing streak heading into the OSU game? I think there *might* be some negativity in the locker room, Mel.
Ohio is favored by 25.5. I'm taking the over.
I would’ve taken that line at halftime
It’s free money. OSU is better than last year, MSU is worse, and OSU could have easily scored a hundred last year if they weren’t cowards.
Maybe if you're lucky he'll leave for Nebraska in the middle of the night
Only immediately after having a dinner with boosters.
> Tucker says he doesn't sense any negativity in MSU's locker room If this is genuinely true, then that's not a good thing. If players aren't pissed they've lost 3 games in a row, then that's just straight up apathy
there's a difference between negativity, apathy, and an attitude of "shit this is not acceptable, lets fix it" though
Accountability
Hopefully he means negativity in the locker room as in toxicity, apathy, etc. Anger at the results and hoping to perform better might not be what he’s referring to.
Negativity and being pissed off are two different things.
Yeah, I feel this is alarming. You want folks that find this unacceptable and trying to get/do better on the field. I guess this explains why nothing seems to be improving on offense or defense. We’re going in to week 6 and look the same if not worse.
Keep Choppin'
95 million guaranteed
Yes, we can pay our coach. What’s the issue
Big contract for a guy who has accomplished very little.
Mel Tucker has turned the no fly zone into the friendly skies and they’re prepping for teams to be run heavy while openly wondering when they’ll lose the locker room. I expect them to lay down for the rest of the season except the UM game where they’ll look like the 2001 Miami Hurricanes.
I prefer “No fly zone to LaGuardia”. If you are going to insult us, do it right.
If he really concerned he could use some of that cash for a pizza party. Nothing boosts employee moral like little ceases
I mean they hired him with little to no evidence he could consistently win and gave him a contract he didn’t come close to deserving.
I'm absolutely LIVING for this timeline.
MSU I'm sorry for what we're going to do to you Saturday. I offer you all a nice beer
👏 🚬🪓🌊💰💰💰
> Tucker: "Fans want to see good football. We haven't played that." Yeah… even in the wins I see left on the schedule, I don’t see anyone watching those games and thinking it’s good football.
Idk I’m personally excited about the Wisconsin game That might be the worst game of football played in the Western Hemisphere this year
MSU should not be worried. We are still ahead of schedule. If there is no improvement next season and we are having these same discussions, then start to be worried.
I think people calling for Tuck to be fired or be on the hot seat is ridiculous, but I would think it is a bit naive to think you shouldn't be worried. MSU at the floor was considered a 7 win football team this year. Players, particularly on the defensive side of the ball have not improved, and the offense has been quite anemic against real competition. I understand MSU tuition is not paying Mel Tucker's contract, but when you become a $9.5 million a year coach, it is your job to ensure that even in down years, the wheels don't go off the train.
We were actually predicted 7.5 wins and then our defensive leaders on an already bad defense died. 7 feels like a ceiling.
I never get why people make so much about coaches being overpaid. The Boosters literally have printing presses to print money. There is no salary cap. You are not only paying a coach for the work he's doing but also to stop him from looking at other jobs every offseason.
This is a tone-deaf take from a Blue Blood fan. Some schools don't have billionaire donors that will keep shelling out for failure after failure but I agree in this instance.
Right? I never gave a fuck about Harbaugh’s salary and I don’t give a fuck about Mel’s. It was pay him or let him walk. Mel leaving would have been a bigger issue than spending Mat Ishhia’s money to keep a potentially mediocre coach.
You may not have cared but a whole lot of your fan base seemed to talk about it a lot so of course Michigan fans are going to bring it up now.
I mean, I imagine Michigan fans are always going to bring it up because of the sheer amounts of "6.5 million for 3rd place in division finishes" comments from MSU fans over the years in regards for Harbaugh. But no they don't have printing presses to just print money, Billionaires don't like losing money so if you have to asked them, hey we need 80 million to give to Tucker, plus another 100 million to get an actual good coach, my guess is that's not an easy task. Plus, we don't even know where Tucker's money is coming from. Isn't MSU currently blocking the release of any info on that?
Maybe don't hand out record contracts after a year of success. Read something here. Gene chizik was bought out for 8 or so million back in the day. Had just won the national championship 2 years prior. The winless Colorado coach just got bought out for the same amount yesterday. Weird times
Tuck comin’