Mel Tucker Has Made Changing Michigan Football Culture A Priority

Mel Tucker Has Made Changing Michigan Football Culture A Priority

With his coaching staff now complete, Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker now looks to put his stamp on a program that had gone in a considerable decline in the years following Michigan State’s Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff appearance in 2015.

One of the first things Tucker cited during his press conference last week about his first tasks to address at Michigan State was changing the culture of the Spartan football program.

“Really, it's going to be about initially changing the culture, a culture shift,” he told reporters. “That's going to be really the first order of business, and Michigan State football, we all know what it's supposed to look like, so it's going to be about getting back to that. Whether it's coaches, whether it's players, we're starting at ground zero with an attitude that we have to prove it each and every day. We have something to prove, we're going to process things with a chip on our shoulder. Michigan State football is about hard work, reflective of the people in the state of Michigan, mental and physical toughness. And we're going to bring juice.”

While Michigan State almost always went about its business with a chip on its shoulder during the Mark Dantonio, something that the Spartans lacked in recent years was the “juice” that Tucker referenced.

The hiring of Tucker alone has brought some needed energy to the Spartan football program from fan interest, to building his coaching staff, to how Michigan State has operated on the recruiting trail in the first two-plus weeks of his time in East Lansing.

But in order to fully change or shift the culture as Tucker said, one of the most important steps for him is obviously to develop relationships with current members of the football team.

Considering it’s still early in the process, Tucker admitted he’s still getting to know the players and said that it’s a ‘delicate process’, but feels it’s going well so far.

“I'm still in the get to know phase with the players,” he said. “We're getting to know them, and they're getting to know us. When you're getting to know players, coming to a new situation, it's about building trust, day in and day out, using every opportunity, every touchpoint, with a player, a student-athlete, to just let them know how you feel about them. Let them know that you care, and let them know that you want what's best for them on and off the field. So, that's a process, and it's a delicate process and I feel like we're off to a good start so far. Then, what we need to do from a culture standpoint. Obviously, we know what Michigan State football is supposed to look like. We know that there's a strong tradition, rich history. So, everything that we do will be to that goals that get into look like how we know it should look.”