Wolverine Wednesday: MSU's Coaching Search Just Got Tucker'ed Out

Michigan State's dumpster fire of losing its head coach in February and subsequent coaching search, got worse and better all in one day.

First, the news broke that Dantonio actually retired because MSU had hired a search firm for his replacement (while he was still in role) and that he had planned to coach in 2020 and then retire while naming his successor.   So with one last screw you, he retired immediately.  Real classy Mark.

Secondly, a member of the MSU BOT went on the radio and inferred that Luke Fickell was a "Waffling Flake".

Then the next candidate on the list Pat Shurmer who just took a new job with the Denver Broncos said he was tied up in meetings to even turn down the MSU job.

While all day people in the media continued to pile on a choice that would include former Wisconsin and Arkansas head coach Brett Bielema, it seemed inevitable that they would just name Tressel the interim coach.  Which would kill the 2021 recruiting class and put the program back another couple years.  With whiffing on the last two classes, MSU is arguably already in a 3-4 year hole.

The search had hit rock bottom and couldn't get any worse.  Which it didn't.

Then late night after Mel Tucker met with a bunch of Colorado boosters, he accepted the Michigan State job after the Spartans doubled his salary and the assistant coaching pool salary.   If you remember, just last week Mel had committed to staying in Colorado and his team.  Sounds familiar doesn't it? Is he a waffling flake?

Here is a little bit about Mel:

• Played DB at Wisconsin
• GA at MSU
• OSU DC in 1994
• Browns DC in 2008
• Jaguars DC 2009-2012
• Chicago Bears DC 2013-2014
• Bama DB coach 2015
• Georgia DC 2016-2018
• Colorado Head Coach 2019 

How did Mel do his first year at UC?  5-7 with a 5 game losing streak in the middle of the season. 

Which means it's still unknown if Mel is a good coach or not, but beggars can't be choosers and MSU had very few options.   Mel is known as a very strong recruiter and that should help Sparty in the coming years.  

If I was an MSU fan, my only concern would be: Is Mel a good head coach and is he worth $5M a year?  On the other hand, MSU had to over pay  anyone coming from outside the dumpster fire.  Which brings me to the leading candidate to replace Mel at Colorado in KC Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy.  To me Eric was a home run hire for Sparty and a person I would have risked that type of money on.  

Mel has had a ton of high profile coordinator jobs in college and pro and flamed out at many spots.  I don't know, maybe Bill Beekman really wanted to hire a guy from school that could be abbreviated with letters UC. 

HT to Mgoblog and the picture of 3 Muppets:

Bill Beeker-Man