Mel Tucker must have exhaled a sigh of relief every time a signed National Letter of Intent came into the Michigan State football offices this morning. Each and every one of those LOIs represented hours and hours of work over the course of months and even years.

And it didn’t stop until this morning for many of his commits.

Michigan State is going up against the big boys these days for many of its recruits and that brings a different sort of problem with it. The coaching staffs for these schools have the resources and wherewithal to keep at it with the recruits that MSU is trying to bring in. Many of these schools' staffs also just don’t take no for an answer.

Spartans Illustrated caught up with Mel Tucker today following his press conference, and he let us in on how brutal the last few days have been.

“It was all day, every day,” said Tucker. “They were trying to flip guys today, flip guys this morning.”

It’s the rare commit that says yes to a school and doesn’t have other schools in his ear trying to change his mind all the way up to the moment he signs his LOI.

“It’s a jungle out there,” said Tucker. “It’s brutal.”