Michigan State coach Mel Tucker: ‘There is a really good vibe around the program right now’
East Lansing, Mich. – With less than 70 days until the 2023 college football season kicks off for Michigan State, Spartan head coach Mel Tucker feels good about team and program progress being made in the off-season.
“I like the summer,” Tucker said late last week. “We have a lot going on this summer because recruiting is non-stop, and it really ramps up with officials on the weekend in June and unofficials during the week and some officials during the week. And then camps – the little kids camp, the prospects camp – are going on. The team building we are doing with our own team, having team barbeques. It’s a great time for us to focus on us and block out all the noise and work on us.”
Tucker feels the work has been constructive.
“I like what I’m seeing so far,” Tucker said. “We have a lot of good football players on this team. Some of them are new to the team, but some of them have been here and are developing, or have become healthy.
“We’re a work in progress, always. But it’s really about how good can this team be, relative to our potential. That’s where our focus is.
“In addition to that, we are on-boarding our new guys. We have high school guys and transfers who just got here this month. So we are getting those guys up to speed about how we do things. That’s going well.
“The guys that are already here, they are doing a good job of embracing the news guys. So there is a really good vibe around the program right now. Guys are working really hard. They are working hard on the field and also off the field. We have players who are intentional about getting to know their teammates, getting to know each other better.”
STAFF UPDATES
New recruiting coordinator Mark Diethorn came aboard and May 1 and oversaw the prospects camps in June and June official visits.
“Mark is familiar with us and he understands the type of players we need to compete here,” Tucker said. “He has a lot of connections and knows a lot of high school coaches and players. So that’s good.
“He is super-organized with attention to detail. He’s very passionate about it. He works well with coaches and support staff. The recruiting weekends we’ve had have been really good. The reports coming back from players and parents and family have been good, they like it, they feel good about it when they leave here.”
Diethorn is making final hires to fill out his support staff, which is expected to be robust.
“We’re building a staff and we’re going to add some more folks so we will be at full capacity in the fall,” Tucker said. “We’ve done really well with the recruiting weekends and the unofficials, and we had a big turnout at the camps. We feel good about it. So I’m really encouraged.”
Michigan State is putting the finishing touches on naming a successor to Amber Rhinestine as the new team dietitian. Rhinestine’s contract was not renewed in May. Michigan State’s dietitian program continued without her as Tucker interviewed new candidates.
“We didn’t skip a beat,” he said. “We’ve got staff. We have a program. It wasn’t just one person. They already had their protocols in place and everything.”
Sources tell SpartanMag that a successor has been chosen, but her name has not been officially released while the university vetting process takes place.
EARLY IMPRESSIONS?
Michigan State’s freshmen and transfers have been in the process of reporting to campus to take part in off-season workouts. Tucker is getting good reports about the newcomers, which includes 16 incoming freshmen who are part of the nation’s No. 22-ranked 2023 recruiting class.
“I have some consultants that work with the team and they tell me they are really impressed with our newcomers, our high school guys that just got here,” Tucker said. “This is a good group of freshmen. All the guys are good players and they are a good fit for us. All of them have bright futures.
“We work really hard on team building, team bonding and team cohesiveness. And I’ve been meeting with players individually as much as I can during the summer. I think everybody can feel that the team is becoming more and more connected every week. That’s a big part of the summer.”
When asked if any of them have stood out thus far, Tucker said it is too early for that.
“I am not sure if one guys stands out,” he said. “It’s easy to say a guy like Jordan Hall stands out because he was here all spring and we saw him practice and he did a good job. He’s a good player, but he’s not the only one. I mean we signed a lot of good players in this last class – high school players and portal guys. We have added some talent.”
Eight of the incoming freshmen enrolled early and participated in spring practice, plus junior college offensive tackle Keyshawn Blackstock.
Ten of Michigan State’s 17 incoming transfers arrived at mid-year and participated in spring practice. The other seven have been filing in this summer.
“It’s fun to see a guy like Jalen Sami,” Tucker said. “That’s really neat to see him because he played for us at Colorado when he was a redshirt freshman.”
Sami entered the transfer portal in May and committed to Michigan State on May 17.
Sami (6-6, 330, Colorado Spring) started 32 games during his career at Colorado. Last year, he led all Colorado defensive linemen in snaps played at 475. He had three tackles for loss on the season.
In 2021, Sami was named honorable mention All-Pac 12 by the coaches.
In 2019, when Tucker was head coach at Colorado, Sami started 11 games and was given the team’s Tiger Bussey Award for inspiration in the face of physical adversity, after missing the 2018 season with a knee injury.
“He started for us and he played well,” Tucker said. “So we get to see him now; he’s graduated, he’s older and that’s fun to see his mindset, his development, his maturity and all that. He’s a very good addition to our team in a lot of ways.”
The Spartans weren’t in need of help at defensive tackle, but Sami was too solid to pass up, once he entered the portal and showed interest in Michigan State and Tucker’s staff.
“I have mentioned before that we need to get bigger,” Tucker said. “We have done that on the offensive line. And we needed to add size to the defensive line. We did that. We added three guys that are 6-5, 300-plus defensive tackles. Tunmise (Adeleye) walked in the door at defensive end at 280. All of those guys have good size.”
The combination of incoming freshmen and transfers has fortified the defensive front.
“That’s seven new d-linemen,” Tucker said. “Pass rushers like Andrew DePaepe, Bai Jobe, Jalen Thompson and Tunmise on the end, and Jarrett Jackson, Deandre Butler and Jalen Sami inside. That’s seven guys that we didn’t have last year that are good players.
“It’s a matter of getting them up to speed, learning the playbook, bonding with their teammates, understanding the culture. That’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, is add good defensive linemen. So I’m really encouraged about that.
“The getting in shape part, the strength and conditioning, this is typically when a player gets in the best shape of his life, in the summer. So that’s happening.”
The post Michigan State coach Mel Tucker: ‘There is a really good vibe around the program right now’ appeared first on On3.
