Little Man Mel

Submitted by lebriarjr on November 8th, 2021 at 2:15 PM

Little Man Mel takes a job at Harbaugh “Complaining about bad call makes your program soft”

He’s just mad the Little Sisters got destroyed by Purdue. 

azee2890

November 8th, 2021 at 2:30 PM ^

FWIW, this was his quote:

“I don't like to talk about bad calls,” Tucker said during his weekly news conference. “That's not part of our culture. We don't like to make excuses about anything. I think that makes your program soft. I think it gives your coaches and your players a way out, so I don’t even like to talk about it that much.

But we do turn them in, because we need clarification. And if I disagree with something, I'll tell them and then we move on, because that's not gonna change the outcome, actually. It happens every week. It's a human performance business, and there's a lot of judgment calls as well.”

So he thinks complaining about bad calls makes your team soft. And admits right afterwards that they submit bad calls to the BIG10 for clarification (ie complaining). So he's just being honest about how soft his team and culture is. Honestly pretty brave. 

The Homie J

November 8th, 2021 at 3:29 PM ^

Lol, could easily be a meme

"We don't talk about bad calls.  Like the targeting call on us, that kinda bad call.  We won't ever bring those calls up, like Michigan having 4 points taken off the board.  I won't discuss roughing the snapper years ago, or not calling DPI on that 4th down two weeks, with the game on the line.  At Michigan State, we move on, we put stuff like "Spartan Bob putting 1 second on the clock" in the past.  Next to other bad calls like a Michigan linebacker being shoved into our QB and getting called for targeting, that's where we end discussion on bad calls.  Next question."

MGoStretch

November 8th, 2021 at 3:18 PM ^

Wow, I have to say one good thing about msu's athletic department, they do an excellent job at maintaining a consistent culture.  Just a few years of hanging out and mel sounds exactly like izzo in a post-loss press conference.  "I'm not going to stand up here and make a bunch of excuses" followed by a press conference that consists entirely of excuses.

ak47

November 8th, 2021 at 2:35 PM ^

Tucker absolutely comes out of this back and forth looking better than Harbaugh, especially since his team won. Neither coach said anything that different and its just media framing but Tucker's one sentence sound bite sounds better. It wasn't the last play of the game, it was a bad call but wasn't determinative of the outcome. I'd really prefer to just move on and have our revenge be if we can actually beat OSU and have the the better season.

azee2890

November 8th, 2021 at 2:45 PM ^

Also FWIW, here is the Harbaugh transcript:

 

Reporter: Did the Big Ten office call to discuss the overturned strip-stack-fumble recovery touchdown by Aidan Hutchinson?

Harbaugh: “Yeah, as we all expected, all saw, mistakes were made."

Reporter: “You heard from them?”

Harbaugh: “That was the response, they made a mistake.”

Reporter: “On that call?”

Harbaugh: “Yeah. And others.”

Reporter: “So they said they said they made mistakes on other calls?”

Harbaugh: “Yes.”

Reporter: “Just being clear.”

Harbaugh: “Can't be any more clear than that."

Reporter: “Well there were a lot of calls, that's why I wasn't sure.”

Harbaugh: “Yeah, there were. The film doesn’t lie, you know.”

 

Doesn't sound like someone who intentionally came into the presser looking to get that off his chest but a question probed by a media member to stir up this exact storyline. 

ak47

November 8th, 2021 at 3:22 PM ^

Yeah I don't really care what Harbaugh said and don't think he was in any way blaming the loss on that call. Its more just if you look at the media sound bites you have one coaching with a one liner saying they don't make excuses and one coach highlighting a bad call in a game from two weeks ago. Its just an optics loss that it happened on the same day. I don't even think Tucker even knew about Harbaugh's comment, just saying his comment reads better.

azee2890

November 8th, 2021 at 4:51 PM ^

Sure, if you are the type of person that just reads headlines, your take away will be a Mel Tucker win because the headline is "Harbaugh says BIG10 refs made a mistake" and "Mel Tucker takes jab at Harbaugh's officiating comments" when in reality, if you read or listened to the interviews, Harbaugh was answering a question he was repeatedly asked and Mel Tucker wasn't even talking about Harbaugh or Michigan. 

UMForLife

November 8th, 2021 at 10:27 PM ^

Not just one call. Goddamn. How many times this has to be repeated. Move on for what? Fight brother/sister. That is the only way B1G and teams like M and OSU is going to do something.. it is all about money. Moving on does nothing but builds this incompetency. 

Anyway, I mean just fight on the internet. :)

mbrummer

November 8th, 2021 at 2:38 PM ^

Should get the message to Blaha and Strayhorn on their radio broadcast.

Listened to the last 7 minutes while getting takeout.  They started talking about refs and injuries non stop.

My eyes rolled almost to the back of my head.

Honestly,, they are terrible announcers.  They are so slow and and Strayhorn just groans during plays.  Honestly 50 yard plays would be dead air, with the crowd cheering .  then you find out its a big play.  

Qmatic

November 8th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^

Listened to the first quarter on the drive to Ann Arbor on WJR. Brandy and Dierdorf have their um, moments, but dear Lord just 10 minutes of the Sparty broadcast was nauseating.

Blaha and using first names almost exclusively (or calling Kenneth Walker III "K9" every 5 seconds), and Strayhorn just groaning in the background and then 5 seconds later Blaha tells you what happens.

Radio play by play is an art, and these guys do an awful job of painting what is actually going on.

TeslaRedVictorBlue

November 8th, 2021 at 2:39 PM ^

We'll  see if he feels that way when the refs call 11 unnecessary steroid use/roughess against his team for touching Stroud's shoulder.  But u know... we're soft. because we lost by 4 points on some BS.  gotcha.  Eat a bag of d*

Brianj25

November 8th, 2021 at 3:01 PM ^

This whole thing is manufactured trash and the borderline illiterate portions of both fan bases are swallowing it hook, line and sinker. 

Harbaugh didn't come into the press conference looking to talk about Michigan State. He was directly prompted about the officiating. It was pretty benign. 

Tucker wasn't even asked about the officiating in the Michigan game. MSU was on the wrong end of about a dozen or so calls/non-calls in their loss to Purdue. The reporters were practically begging him to complain about the officiating.

But they have successfully manufactured the narrative that Harbaugh was still complaining that the refs gave the game to MSU two weeks later and Tucker is calling Harbaugh and Michigan soft for complaining about the refs. Even though none of this is even close to what happened.  

TeslaRedVictorBlue

November 8th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^

the post on ESPN says .. "Harbaugh says".. wtf.  Why can't the B10 just announce it? Why does harbaugh have to comment at all other than... yeah, we all saw it. Another polarizing moment they try and create for a guy who has been docile for 5 years.

Bo Harbaugh

November 8th, 2021 at 2:59 PM ^

He didn't bring it up, reporters asked a question.

Sparty lost by 11 and not because of the 1 questionable call.  Congrats to Mel for playing tough guy. 

UM lost by 4 after going 0-6 on replays, 2 of which were straight up admittedly wrong and took points off the board.  Yeah, how dare Harbaugh answer the reporter's question as to if the league contacted him.

When you get clubbed over the head, house broken into and your shit stolen, be sure not to answer the neighbors questions about what happened...tough guys don't bring that up.  Guy beat you man, suck it up.