LANSING, Mich. (WSYM) — It's official. Mel Tucker, the former head football coach at Colorado, is now set to run Michigan State's program. But Tucker's path back to MSU didn't come without some controversy too.
He's been called many things in the last 24 hours, particularly by Colorado Buffaloes fans, upset with Tucker, who said he wasn't leaving Boulder for MSU multiple times.
"It's disappointing, but look, a coach is going to do what's best for he and his family," Colorado athletic director Rick George said.
He's been called a short-timer, as he was just at Colorado for a year, and had everyone there convinced he was committed and not going anywhere.
One of his trademarks? He's also a shorts-wearer...on the field. Tucker's been known to coach in shorts on the sidelines during games. But one thing he can accurately be called now is Michigan State's 25th head football coach.
Tucker's been around the block, but he got his start at MSU under Nick Saban as a grad assistant.
"My dream was to come back here and be the head coach," Tucker said in his introductory news conference Wednesday.
He's a defensive-minded coach, who has run NFL defenses and was behind some of college football's best defenses under Saban again at Alabama and then at Georgia, before calling the shots at colorado.
"I love football here!" Tucker said simply of MSU.
Now Tucker's back home, where it all began, and he's hoping to get MSU back to where they once were, not all that long ago, in the College Football Playoff.
"Go green!" Tucker exclaimed with a smile as he walked off the stage at his press conference.
