Mel Tucker: Michigan State 'determined' and 'focused' ahead of fall camp
Ahead of Big Ten Media Days this week and fall camp getting underway next week, Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker talked about his Spartans on "The Drive with Jack" hosted by Jack Ebling, a friend of Spartans Illustrated.
Tucker touched on a variety of topics from his golf game to recruiting and the transfer portal. Tucker, whose Spartans open the season in just over one month against Central Michigan on Friday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m., likes how his players have been developing over the offseason.
“I like the way our guys have been working in this off-season,” Tucker said. “We have a lot of young players that got a lot of experience last season, some on-the-job training. It was painful, but at the end of the day, I knew it was going to benefit us down the road. We have a hungry group, coaches and players. Very determined, very focused.”
Michigan State has 17 new transfers this season. That is in addition to two Junior College signees and 15 incoming true freshmen. With so many new faces, team chemistry is, naturally, a question mark.
“I feel like our team chemistry is better,” Tucker said. “Guys have really connected well. That is very important, especially when you have so many newcomers. It’s a talented group. We are going to be young at some positions and we’re gonna have to break some guys in, but I think that’s good.”
Looking at each position group, there will be battles all throughout fall camp. Most notably, redshirt junior Noah Kim and redshirt freshman Katin Houser will battle for the starting quarterback position. Tucker said at the beginning of spring practices that “every position is open” and that theme looks like it has continued throughout the summer.
“We have more competition at each position than we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Tucker said. “I am just looking forward to starting camp. We are just going to take it one meeting at a time, one practice at a time, and just continue to build and grow so we can put our best foot forward when it is time to play these games.”
One of the position groups that will likely have a battle for starting spots is the wide receiver position. Redshirt senior Tre Mosley is the leading returning receiver for the Spartans after Keon Coleman departed to Florida State. Mosley appears to be both the leader of the receiving room and one of the leaders of the entire team.
“He is one of our best leaders,” Tucker said about Mosley. “Tre Mosley is everything you want in a player. He’s really stepped up as a leader. He started to do that toward the end of last season, and really took that into the out of season. He’s really been proactive in leading and has worked really hard with it, with his teammates. He is definitely captain material, certainly.”
In present day college football, recruiting tends to be non-stop. There are now two signing days (one in December and one in February). June is also one of the most important months of the year with official visits happening for high school prospects. That's before even mentioning the transfer portal which is non-stop as well.
“That remains to be seen,” Tucker said about possibly adding more players via the transfer portal. “I have a recruiting Zoom here at six o’clock. “I’ll be getting on the phone with the young man and his family. It just really never stops.”
On the topic of the transfer portal, given the recent hazing allegations at Northwestern and subsequent firing of head coach Pat Fitzgerald, all Northwestern players have a window to enter the portal and commit to a new school without penalty. One of the players that has already entered the portal is linebacker Nigel Glover who was set to begin his true freshman year at Northwestern. Glover was a three-star recruit from Clayton, Ohio.
In terms of high school recruiting, MSU has an important event coming up on July 28 and 29 called Spartan Dawg Con. MSU commits and targets will be able to go to East Lansing and connect with coaches, current players and former players.
“At the end of the month, we have the Spartan Dawg Con, and we’ll have some guys in on some unofficials (visits),” Tucker said. “There will be more guys jumping in the boat here soon with commitments. A lot of players want to commit before their senior season starts, so you could look to see maybe some more commitments.”
Overall, Tucker likes the direction his program is headed recruiting wise, especially with the in-state high school prospects.
“Recruiting is going well,” Tucker said. “We are gaining ground in-state, which was an issue when I walked in the door here in 2020, especially in Detroit. We seem to be able to mitigate those circumstances, and we are starting to get some really good players, some top players here. We’re in the hunt. We’re battling for some of the top players in the country and winning our fair share of those. That’s only going to improve and increase as we go, especially with our new facility.”
Speaking of the Detroit area, MSU continues to build relationships with some of the top high school programs in the metro Detroit area. Spartans Illustrated highlighted some of those relationships in our SoundMind SoundBody High School Seven-on-Seven Showcase coverage, specifically with Belleville High School and Cass Tech.
Recruiting is a never ending pursuit to acquire the best players. Even when a player commits, the battle is never really over until he signs his national letter of intent.
“It never stops,” Tucker said. “When players commit to us, it doesn’t stop. When players commit to other places, it doesn’t stop. Unless they say they don’t want to be recruited, schools continue to recruit them. A lot of times players will commit and that same day they’ll tell you, ‘Hey, still recruit me, I still want to be recruited.’ Guys change their minds, and they commit for different reasons as well. You just never know for sure until December when they sign or that first Wednesday in February. You just don’t know. You can’t really draw too many conclusions until that point.”
Tucker's full interview with Ebling is embedded below.
