College football’s top 25 highest-paid coaches for 2020 season

13. Mel Tucker – Michigan State

2020 Salary: $5.5 million

There was a chance that the Spartans were looking at a dark time because their top candidates kept rejecting them. Then, Mel Tucker came over from the University of Colorado and got a salary that was double what he was making in the Rockies.

Tucker also has a litany of performance bonuses depending on certain awards he could win and his status in the conference and the country. So, beyond his guaranteed $5.5 million, Tucker could end up getting a whole lot more if he ends up living to the expectations Spartan fans have for him.

Based on how everything went down, it sounds like Michigan State sent a grandfather offer to Tucker, giving him no choice but to leave Colorado. Tucker went on Twitter days before signing his new contract and thanked Michigan State for their interest but decided to stay where he was. Then, a few days later he went on the radio the same day he signed with the Spartans and said he wasn’t leaving. MSU must have come with this major money offer for a coach that hasn’t proven a lot.

Tucker was a head coach for one year, won five games with a middling Pac-12 team, had no time to actually allow his recruits to show any growth, and he became one of the highest-paid coaches in the country. It just shows that timing is literally everything here. Well, we shall see if it works.