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Michigan State football fans can thank Nick Saban for Mel Tucker

By Patrick Schmidt

8 Nov 1997: Head coach Nick Saban of the Michigan State Spartans looks on during a game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Ross Ade Stadium in Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue won the game 22-21. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Daniel /Allsport
8 Nov 1997: Head coach Nick Saban of the Michigan State Spartans looks on during a game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Ross Ade Stadium in Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue won the game 22-21. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Daniel /Allsport /
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Michigan State football fans can thank former Spartans head coach Nick Saban for helping bring new head coach Mel Tucker to East Lansing.

Mel Tucker is the new head coach at Michigan State in part because he got the blessing of an old Michigan State head coach.

Tucker received the blessing from Nick Saban who was the Spartans head coach from 1995-1999 and previously served as the team’s defensive backs and defensive coordinator from 1983-1987.

Saban hired Tucker three different times with the first coming when Tucker was a graduate assistant in 1997-1998, followed by coaching defensive backs at LSU in 2000 and most recently as Alabama’s defensive coordinator in 2015 when the Tide won the national championship.

It’s been more than 20 years since Saban was at Michigan State but his influence still is strong.

“I’m very interested in Michigan State having the right person,” Saban said in the phone call with Michigan State athletic director Bill Beekman and deputy athletic director Alan Haller, according to the Detroit News.

“Mel has made a name for himself as one of the best and brightest coaches in our profession,” Saban said of Tucker who went 5-7 in his one season at Colorado. “I believe he will do a tremendous job as head coach of the Spartans. MSU is getting a guy with infinite class and a great personality, who is smart, works hard, and does it with an incredible amount of enthusiasm and positive energy.

“Mel is a tireless recruiter who knows the game of college football and understands what it will take to be successful in East Lansing.”

Saban went 34-24-1 in five seasons at Michigan State, culminating with a 9-2 record and No. 9 ranking in his final year before leaving for LSU where he won the first of six national championships.

Michigan State football fans will be more than happy if Tucker can get Michigan State back to the nine-win territory they used to eclipse in the glory days under his predecessor Mark Dantonio.

If Tucker can do that, they can thank Saban for playing a small part in convincing the university to bring him to Michigan State.

They doubled his salary to get him out of Colorado after only one year and after he initially turned them down, so if it doesn’t work, Michigan State football fans can also blame Saban for helping bring Tucker to town too.

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