Where did the $95M Mel Tucker is paid to "rebuild" MSU narrative come from?
I'm not only hearing this MSU is rebuilding narrative from MSU alum in-laws and co-workers, it is leaking into Detroit News and Free Press coverage of the team, which seems to be rewriting history to rationalize regression. MSU was ranked top 15 to begin the season. And pre-season predictions by Spartans and their media had them building on their 2021 success, with everyone predicting 8 to 11 wins.
https://www.theonlycolors.com/2022/8/29/23321603/toc-staff-picks-michigan-state-spartans-season-predictions
https://247sports.com/college/michigan-state/board/93/Contents/predict-how-many-wins-for-msu-football-in-22-191205140/?page=1
I can not find any predicted regress to a 3 or 4 win season. I can not find any mention of a supposed rebuild, let alone a multi-year rebuild because Mark Dantonio supposedly blew up the program on the way out (10-3, 7-6, 7-6). What "dumper fire" did Dantonio leave? When he retired, MSU's football program had top 20 revenue, according to the Wall Street Journal. https://graphics.wsj.com/table/NCAA_2019
October 23rd, 2022 at 11:45 AM ^
I heard Pat Caputo say unironically on the radio yesterday morning that "in March 2020 when MSU hired Tucker that he (Caputo) preferred Tucker over Fickell."
The media sets their narrative and just runs with it. Don't take it too seriously.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:10 PM ^
I definitely remember every Sparty with a voice acting like Tucker was the most coveted coach in all of football when they announced the hire.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:39 PM ^
First of all, Caputo is a dreadful bore. Hasn't had an original thought in ages.
As for Tucker, if he were coveted at all his first head coaching gig would not have been Colorado. And after Dantonio gave them the middle finger by leaving in February, State was going to have to be satisfied with whomever they could come up with.
October 23rd, 2022 at 3:14 PM ^
He probably did. He is an idiot.
October 23rd, 2022 at 7:27 PM ^
The MSU slappies making excuses. They need to justify $95M by saying ‘rebuilding’.
Last year MSU thumped their chest because they were ‘experts’ with the portal. This year when they are shitty it’s ‘rebuilding’.
Sparty logic. Remember … they don’t need to take math or learn logic so there’s that.
October 23rd, 2022 at 11:46 AM ^
someone saying 9-3 is the baseline for MSU this year in the comments on that first link is pretty hilarious in retrospect
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:25 PM ^
I audibly laughed at, “11-1 out of respect for OSU. Tuck comin.”
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:55 PM ^
They go back to the story that they don’t care about 9-3. Remember, this week is their “Superbowl”.
October 23rd, 2022 at 11:49 AM ^
Where did it come from? It came from them being fucking awful and having to change their messaging because they're stuck with him. Pretty easy really.
October 23rd, 2022 at 1:33 PM ^
It's remarkable to me that I rarely hear people mention the fact that the dude is a DEFENSIVE BACKS coach by trade, and yet that is consistently worst part of his team. No greater indictment of his (lack of) coaching prowess than that.
October 23rd, 2022 at 8:23 PM ^
right? what a fool.
- Paul Chryst, former QB and 19 year QB coach.
October 23rd, 2022 at 11:53 AM ^
I'm looking forward to them "rebuilding" for a very, very long time.
October 24th, 2022 at 12:42 PM ^
Exactly. One year of Tucks’s rebuilding down, nine to go. By then they will have been relegated to the Sun Belt.
October 23rd, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^
Harbaugh happened to Dantonio and a better PSU team happened. In his last few years, he had to face good to decent UM and PSU. OSU was another level anyway. MSU could not accept that they are going to be the 4th best team in B1G East. Dantonio created that culture and he was a good coach.
Tucker beat UM twice and they lucked into a good season last year. Their fans and media think Tucker can recruit and/or get great players from portal. They think the last few years of Dantonio has nothing to do with dominance of UM and better plays by PSU. They think getting better players will solve the problem. They are forgetting that Dantonio is a better coach and Tucker has a bad track record. Hence the narrative that they need to rebuild and flush out Dantonio stink. I find that to be a horrible revisionist history on their part.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:51 PM ^
The MSU/UM thing is a razors edge. Both teams split a small state from a recruiting base and the powerhouse in the conference is scott free owning the biggest recruiting state all by itself. The second best benefit Osu has is there is a MSU fanbase that could lose to them 52-0 every year and they dont care. MSU is built to bring UM down and it makes things even easier for OSU. A minimum of one team is set to fail in the UM/MSU rivalry and the second one has no easy task either.
October 23rd, 2022 at 1:00 PM ^
Michigan has ten million people. It isn’t a small state in any way.
October 23rd, 2022 at 1:33 PM ^
He did specify in terms of recruiting. Michigan isn't a major hotbed of football recruits.
October 23rd, 2022 at 6:17 PM ^
Not a major hotbed, agreed, but not “small” when it comes to recruiting either. MI had the 12th-most players on NFL rosters as of the start of this season, roughly in line with its population (10th).
October 23rd, 2022 at 8:03 PM ^
His point is that OSU has the fifth biggest state talent-wise to itself with no instate rival. Meanwhile we have to fight with Sparty over much less talent.
OSU’s structural advantage is massive.
October 23rd, 2022 at 5:46 PM ^
He is recruiting very well for MSU. Question is can be develop. Dantoni recruited ok but developed well. Tucker is opposite do far. Their 23 class is really good for them but theirposition coaches seem mediocre
They had a great DL coach they got rid of for reasons ... Unexplained
October 24th, 2022 at 3:14 AM ^
Dantonio was lucky in a lot of regards. First off, he came to Michigan State when the Wolverines were in a state in unmigrated disaster. He won a share of his first Big Ten Title, when the Big Ten was wide open with no divisions. That shared title came by not playing Ohio State.
Dantonio's luck continued because the Big Ten moved into the Legends & Leaders Divisions. Michigan was still a disaster and Michigan State did not have to compete against Ohio State for a division title. In fact, they still were not required to play Ohio State every year.
The second area where Dantonio lucked out is that either he or his staff recognized some real 4 and 5 star talented players who were way under recruited. Dantonio hit the lottery on a number of players.
The problem is that the Big Ten did away with the Legends & Leaders and moved to the East/West alignment. That meant that MSU would now have to go head to head with Ohio State for any division championship. Also, the East included a Penn State team which was coming out of the wilderness and Michigan had hired Harbaugh and had finally started getting their act together.
The Big Ten then made it even more difficult by taking away an out of conference game and replacing it with a conference game. People really believed that Dantonio would continue to find these 4 and 5 star players rated as 2 star players. That sort of lottery style luck is not sustainable.
October 23rd, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^
I mean, you answered your own question in the first sentence. I don't know why any of us had to be here for this.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:06 PM ^
Touché. But seeing an alumni base essentially smear their most successful coach in decades is pretty astonishing. All of a sudden Dantonio is a greedy old fart who scorched earth the program on his way out. And his last recruits were so terrible, they are dragging down his $95M successor three years later.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:41 PM ^
Were you not around here during the Carr exit?
October 23rd, 2022 at 10:29 PM ^
Fuck Lloyd Carr he definitively and actively took steps to undermine the program when he wasn’t allowed to hand pick his successor. If anything is revisionist it’s that he was a super genius coach dedicated to all things MI. Naming the stadium tunnel after him is as short sighted as allowing him to coach long enough to lose to App St and make us the laughingstock of college football with constant reminders every time that team beats any team with a pulse.
October 23rd, 2022 at 8:06 PM ^
Dantoni’s rolling over in his grave with Tuck making three times what he ever did
October 24th, 2022 at 7:52 AM ^
Keith Jackson's still alive, though, right?
October 23rd, 2022 at 11:59 AM ^
We’ll see how he recruits next two cycles. Doesn’t appear he’s as good a coach as Dantonio, so he’d better be a much better recruiter. if he’s not nipping at UM/PSU, doesn’t seem like he’s going to match his predecessor in terms of on-field performance.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:18 PM ^
Mel has the social media vibe to recruit stars. However Dantonio was a far better coach and likely a better evaluator of talent.
Mel has had one good season as a coach. And much of it was luck.
Mel needs this win to keep any momentum because he needs to win with more. He is not going to win with less. And frankly he may not win much at all.
October 23rd, 2022 at 1:57 PM ^
Losing = Decommitments
The shine gonna come off Mel as the losses continue to pile up.
October 23rd, 2022 at 5:49 PM ^
He is an African American man who wears the right shoes and smokes cigars and ishbia has a collective paying big money. That's the draw. Can ppl speak out loud truth.
October 23rd, 2022 at 8:05 PM ^
Clearly that would be part of the equation and understandably so.
At the end of the day kids want to win and play for a good program. They want to grow and make the league and take care of their family.
I would think that connection would be more secondary. But if that gets hot I would not discount it.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:01 PM ^
Self delusion from the fanbase would be my guess.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:02 PM ^
They are always more injured than anyone else as well.
It's just their way.
Like Izzo not believing in the transfer thing but starting 40% transfers
October 23rd, 2022 at 1:37 PM ^
Izzo, hundreds of times since he was hired: "We're banged up."
October 23rd, 2022 at 5:27 PM ^
Izzo is a bullet taker.
October 23rd, 2022 at 5:51 PM ^
Weird guys !!
I hate transfer portal despite my team full of them and also tuck.loves the portal and he came on me
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:02 PM ^
It has and will continue to cost MSU a lot more than $95m to rebuild that brand.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:15 PM ^
Speaking of cost, that’s another narrative which bears scrutiny. Spartans claim two boosters are paying all $95M of Tucker’s guaranteed contract, not the financially-challenged university. However, the university refuses to prove this and is in court against the Detroit Free Press for this FOIA on Tuesday.
October 23rd, 2022 at 1:59 PM ^
"DoNerzzzz"
October 23rd, 2022 at 2:00 PM ^
Oh, it's absolutely the case where these two rich guys aren't really on the hook for the buyout and MSU is and that's why they're trying to hide those details. That same AD was out front talking about how much these donors were making MSU a destination school when they were winning so the fact they seem terrified of actually disclosing this contract of a public employee at a public university is incredibly telling.
October 23rd, 2022 at 5:52 PM ^
Ishbia coming
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:08 PM ^
You pay that kind of money because you have someone elite and don’t want to lose them. MSU believes they have an elite coach following last year and the chips fell that they thought they were in trouble of losing him during last season. Any narrative of he was paid for a rebuild is just after fact justification for this year. If that’s what they hired him for they would have paid him 95 million the day he was hired.
October 23rd, 2022 at 5:29 PM ^
As a bonus Franklin got hooked too. PSU saw the madness going on and had to take the leap.
October 24th, 2022 at 9:58 AM ^
Franklin, Jimbo, and Mel Tucker had the same agent - Jimmy Sexton.
October 23rd, 2022 at 9:09 PM ^
I swear MSU thinks they have an elite coach because there was talk of him being on lists for better jobs (LSU) I find this whole situation incredibly hilarious when you consider how much state fans liked to bring up Harbaugh’s salary. Actually looking back on it now it’s absolutely insane that he took that pay cut at all, and then immediately put a whooping on OSU, then Iowa for a big ten title and gave us our first playoff appearance. Now compare Harbaugh’s résumé to Tuckers.
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:08 PM ^
"Rebuilding..." is what Sparty whispers as he cries himself to sleep at night. "Tuck...rebuildin'..."
October 23rd, 2022 at 12:09 PM ^
It's the standard rationalization for a poor coach. Always the previous guy's fault.
The main "evidence" that Dantonio left an empty cupboard was their recruiting rankings under his watch, but Dantonio always focused on sleeper prospects and usually did well with them. But because Tucker apparently sucks at player development, some guys who probably would have reached their potential under Dantonio aren't now. Tucker needs to use the portal to find guys who have already been coached up, since he can't seem to do it himself.
October 23rd, 2022 at 6:32 PM ^
Are you suggesting that his background in coaching defensive backs hasn't made a positive impact in East Lansing? (Last in pass defense last year.)