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Published Nov 17, 2020
DotComp: Tucker's uncompromising approach has some merit
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Jim Comparoni  •  Spartans Illustrated
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East Lansing, Mich. - Mel Tucker isn’t wringing his hands about being 1-3 and seeing his team outscored 73-7 in the past two games.

But he is putting his foot down about what it’s going to take to remain on the team for what he expects to be a steady building process.

A day after redshirt freshman linebacker Marcel Lewis entered the transfer portal, Tucker indicated that there will be more, and that he’s fine with that.

“Obviously you can anticipate seeing some more movement on our roster whether it’s portal-related or otherwise,” he said during Tuesday’s weekly press conference.

Lewis saw action in three games on kickoff coverage last year. The former three-star recruit who was ranked the No. 20 player in Michigan in 2019 didn’t make the dress list team for MSU’s first four games.

Lewis opted out for the 2020 season on Aug. 8 due to COVID-19 concerns. He opted back in, in September prior to the rescheduling of the fall football season.

Lewis failed to crack the three-deep at linebacker this season.

“The portal is part of college football,” Tucker said, when asked about the transfer portal as part of the recruiting picture. “You have the high school kids, you have the undergraduate portal guys, the grad transfers, the junior college guys. We look everywhere for players we feel are a good fit for us and we look to acquire those players.

“At the same time, when you evaluate your current team, ultimately we decide: Who is a good fit on this team? Who has the traits and characteristics, the talent, physical toughness, mental toughness, sense of urgency. Who has those traits that you need to have on your team to be successful?

“Ultimately, there a transition of not only acquiring guys but there’s also guys that may transition out just because there is a certain type of culture and certain type of player that we need to have here and that’s really non-negotiable. Everything is in evaluation. Halfway through the season, at this point, we have a pretty good idea of who can do what.”

Stop and think about that for a moment. He’s halfway into the season, and this year that means more than halfway into November, yet he’s just wrapping up the initial evaluation stages of his own roster.

He didn’t have 15 spring practices, didn’t have a summer of conditioning with the team, didn’t have the usual preseason camp in August.

He’s coached them through four games, including game-week practices, post-game corrections, and the process of moving onto the next opponent. Four times.

In terms of internal evaluation, he’s about where a first-year coach would be after his first four non-conference games, prior to the Big Ten opener.

That’s part of the reason why the axe is starting to fall now. And it might fall a few more times in order to give Michigan State a chance to have room for a full class of 25 for the 2021 recruiting class.

"It's compete and show us what you can do and earn your spot, earn your playing time, earn your right to even stay on the team because this is not like a recreational type of situation,” Tucker said. “This is compete to play, compete to stay."

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