Mel Tucker connection to the Orange Bowl

Submitted by AndrelAnthonyCarter on December 11th, 2021 at 10:52 AM

As many of you know, Mel was an assistant coach at UGA before landing the head coaching job at Colorado. What surprised me is he was there recently enough to have fingerprints on the current roster. This includes the monster DT himself, Jordan Davis, who I was also surprised to learn was a 3* out of high school and had a Michigan offer, and 5* OLB Adam Anderson.

I was also surprised to learn Mel was the primary recruiter for 4.5* Otis Reese. While Reese is no longer at UGA, who is remembered by many here for his early (and wobbly) verbal commitment to Michigan, and then his signing day decision to go to UGA instead.

So there you have a couple more reasons to savor the Harbaugh-Gattis Manspread Offense as it shreds this much hyped defensive unit.

Go blue!

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Football

M_Born M_Believer

December 11th, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^

While Tucker is taking a different approach with recruiting (emphasizing transfer portal) to supplement the fact that MSU is:

A) Not a national recruiting destination

B) at best 5th in line for schools in the Midwest from a name recognition stand point (behind Michigan, OSU, ND, and PSU)

It will be interesting to see if he is able to maintain a team culture and hit the lottery each year.  I have my doubts on both but it is a new age of CFB.....

He does get credit for "recruiting" Walker from Wake Forest.  I just have my doubts he will be able to repeat this.

Talking to a friend about Walker.  First he was telling me how he is butt hurt cause Walker did not get invited to NYC (To fricking bad.....).  But he pointed out a few interesting facts about Walker...

1) He is the first Doak Walker winner to NOT be invited to NYC (you can probably add Walker Camp winner now too)

2) He is also the first Doak Walker winner to NOT have a single offensive linemen to garner any post season recognition (not even all conference selection).

The 2nd point is what most are leaning on...... Walker was EVERYTHING for MSU.  Without him, that is a 5 win team....MAX....

So back to the original point, will Tucker find another Doak Walker finalist from the transfer portal again?  As well as replacing an entire (bad) offensive line.... We shall see......

Joined: 11/11/2009

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snarling wolverine

December 11th, 2021 at 1:17 PM ^

We have a datapoint in the other direction.  Against OSU, Walker barely played because of his ankle injury while Thorne was healthy.  Sparty did absolutely nothing offensively.

Walker's presence basically guaranteed single coverage for MSU's WRs all year.  It's not hard to look good as a QB when that's the case.

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JonnyHintz

December 11th, 2021 at 12:57 PM ^

Sure. But he didn’t develop him. He lucked into a Heisman caliber player falling into his lap in the portal. That’s not a repeatable tactic. It doesn’t involve good coaching. It’s not good schemes. He didn’t “do” anything except offer him a spot on the team. 
 

They parlayed a lot of unrepeatable feats into a 10 win season. They were significantly outgained in multiple wins and had the worst pass defense in the country. Nothing about the way they played this year should have resulted in 10 wins and without the heroic feats of Walker, they’re probably staring 5 or 6 wins in the face. 

Joined: 01/11/2015

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BlueInGreenville

December 11th, 2021 at 11:22 AM ^

Sparty couldn't have asked for an easier or better schedule this year.  Their crossover games in the West were against Northwestern (7th), Nebraska (6th) and Purdue (4th), and they didn't get exposed against OSU until November.  Next year they travel to Washington, and play OSU, Wisconsin, PSU and Michigan all in September and October.  Something tells me the media fascination with Mel Tucker falls off a cliff next year. 

Joined: 10/22/2017

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YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

December 11th, 2021 at 1:46 PM ^

2021 also had the heavy home schedule with UM, PSU and Neb at home. They were beaten twice on the road (PU and OSU) and barely escaped Ind on the road. Their best road win was vs 7-5 Miami.

Hard to tell if Tucker is more 7-5 or 10-2. Statistics say 7-5.  He is a former DC who fielded the worst pass defense in FBS and worst overall defense in the B1G. His track record says 7-5 as well.

Joined: 11/01/2012

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Beilein 4 Life

December 11th, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^

He is 12-7 at MSU, has 1 last place finish in our division and 1 third place finish in the division after he kicked everyone off the team from the last place finish and replaced them with 30 new players, something he won’t be able to do again because they changed the transfer rule. Having the worst defense in the B10, winning a bunch of close games that you are outgained in, and having a RB that leads the nation in yards after contact is not a sustainable model for success. After Dantonio, he has been a substantial step down for them

Joined: 06/19/2018

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JonnyHintz

December 11th, 2021 at 1:09 PM ^

Is there a link to such rule? Google isn’t turning anything up. Seems unrealistic given the amount of people in the portal. Cant grant everyone one free transfer and then limit the amount of transfers you can accept. 
 

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ncaa-proposal-will-allow-programs-to-replace-up-to-seven-transfers-in-expanded-recruiting-class/amp/

If this is what is being referred to, it has nothing to do with the number of transfers you can accept. There’s a rule limiting the number of recruits you can sign (25) in a class. This new rule allows up to 7 outgoing transfers to be replaced in the recruiting class. Meaning if you have 6 players transfer out, you can sign 31 recruits. 
 

I haven’t found anything limiting the number of incoming transfers you can accept.

Joined: 01/11/2015

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Magnum P.I.

December 11th, 2021 at 11:03 AM ^

There were a lot of people fellating Mel in the front page post on Harbaugh's COY award yesterday. I don't really get it. Guy is a .500 coach whose team finished 35th nationally in the advanced metrics.

Joined: 07/16/2009

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Newton Gimmick

December 11th, 2021 at 1:55 PM ^

The advanced metrics argument can go either way -- MSU was about as good as Nebraska on paper, but finished 10-2 instead of 3-9.  That speaks to a particularly good coaching job this year -- and a particularly bad one by Frost -- which is why I'm fine with Mel winning some awards this year, while at the same time am skeptical that it's very sustainable moving forward.  Those stats exist in part to foresee correction to the mean -- a 10-2 team that's 35th in SP+ could theoretically be as good or better next year but go 7-5.

Joined: 05/06/2015

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Grog

December 11th, 2021 at 3:17 PM ^

Man, you are one stubborn person

Luck is the residue of hard work and preparation

I mean, I know you are probably willing to die on this hill and go thirty hundred million posts deep with it, but the Spartans had a fine year, unexpected as hell, and Tucker made his own luck.

Now, as we have been saying the the last decade or so, NEXT YEAR they will go away...

Let's just hope we are finally right about that.

Joined: 12/04/2021

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switch26

December 11th, 2021 at 11:37 AM ^

That's funny considering the covid year was a total aberration.

 

This year's record completely proves last year was a joke and a fluke..  same with msus fluke win because Don brown was a total fucking moron

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